La Luberon

This morning came too soon and I was up at 7:30. I got dressed and etc. Madame was in a better mood so that was good. I however now am feeling pessimistic and still scolded. It sucks. I tried to shake it off though. I left at 8:10 and went to go to the meeting spot in front of the hotel to leave. I took the route of Cours Mirabeau. I found another cat! And I found ten centimes on the ground. I was going to give it to a homeless guy that I pass by but he wasn't there today. His loss.

We got there and waited for everyone. A lot of people skipped the trip because of what happened last time and honestly with how this one went I do not blame them... We got rid of our third bus which I foresaw coming before we even got there. This made it just a French and an English bus. I was on the French bus. I sat closer to the back in hopes that the annoying tour guide lady which we had last time would be less obnoxious from there. She wasn't and this time Yamina was on our bus. Before we could leave she came by and checked all out seatbelts individually and told us each to put this away or put our bags on the floor. It was really stupid. We felt like five year olds.

It didn't get better either. We couldn't talk the whole bus ride because the lady never shut up, and it wasn't like educational stuff, it was stupid stuff. "One time I came here with my kids and we played on the playground for a few hours" great for you! No one cares and your voice is one of the most annoying I have ever heard. Whenever someone started talking Yamina would come and start yelling at them. It was overall just bad. When we finally got to Lourmarin which is a very cute and pretty little village, we got off to your the chateau and the cemetery. Basically we walked about half a mile to the cemetery to look at the grave of Albert Camus. Which was I guess cool but I'm not really a cemetery junkie even if they are famous people. To me it is like, well their body might be there but now it is just bones and taking up space and it's not like they are really there to me. I'd rather remember someone for them not some rock on some dirt where their bones are.

The walk to and from though was almost infuriating. We kept getting yelled at to walk on the tiny sidewalk single file than to walk in the completely deserted road where you could see cars coming from either direction easily. She literally would stand in the road and yell at us not to walk on it and not to cross the street until she was there and not to keep walking until she told us to. I literally felt like it was first grade. Literally. It was one of the most degrading experiences.

After we did the cemetery we went to the chateau tour which I was kind of excited for because it was really pretty. Psyche! We don't actually get to go IN the chateau we get to walk around it because IAU doesn't want to pay for it. Which was included in the program... Okay... So that didn't happen. No storming the castle today. They also told us explicitly that we needed to buy lunch here because there would be nothing else anywhere else.

Well.. It's a Sunday so almost everything is closes already and then it is small so there isn't much around. There was one bread place open, one casino store, and one very expensive convenience store. Do you see the problem here? 100 students 3 stores? Yeah. I decided to go find the bathroom. I found it and the light didn't work and there was no toilet paper. Luckily my iPod has a light and I had a napkin. Win. It was sketch though like all European bathrooms that are free. They didn't have soap either but I found that Gina had purell. So that was good.

Cassandra when I found her had fought the bread rush and bought me a baguette. Win. I bought some oranges at the convenience store before we found the casino store. It really was madness though. Whoever thought this whole thing was a good idea was wrong. Everyone is cranky and it isn't helping to be treated like children so this good fiasco was bad too. I bought a soda and some pretzels at the casino store and then helped hold everyone's stuff while they went to the bathrooms. After all this food madness we didn't have much time I asked the village really because we had to get back to the bus. But from what I saw things were very expensive but also nice looking. But for forty Euros for a scarf I was fine not shopping.

We got back on the bus and I moved up in the bus so I wouldn't get sick. We got to a new village but couldn't get out because the road was blocked by a car, as tends to happen here. The whole time we grotto overhear over the microphone the conversation about nothing by the guide, Yamina, and the bus driver about movies they have seen and how all our French teachers suck for not showing us all more movies in class. Like we have seen some sorry we don't know every French movie ever made... It was not so good. Then we got through and went by a very amazing view into the valley but I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a photo. After that, we went and turned around and went a different way down through the village that I don't know the name of, to go to Lacoste. It was kind of a confusing thing because one bus went the wrong way and then we followed it and I guess it was just a different route to the same place.

Lacoste was really pretty! We got to see the view we had on the bus but off the bus. The village itself was also really pretty and had a flea market going on while we were there. I heard there is an art school there too with lots of American students. It was really pretty. I would say it is probably the second most beautiful place that I have gone so far. The only downside about here is that the castle is at the top of the city and I mean top because it is basically on the side of a cliff with really steep ramps. I don't know how much of an incline it is but it was more than the exercise machines can go. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it but I really wanted to try anyways.... :-/ didn't work out. I was working my way up slowly when finally the guide who left the buses five minutes after the group caught up to me. I told her I had an illness that made it hard to get up and she made me go back down. It was kind of disheartening. But at the same time maybe that was exactly what I needed was some time away from the group. So again no storming the castle for me. Apparently it was closed though anyways.

I sat and ate my lunch on some stairs by an archway and then walked around the flee market. I didn't find anything super great. Pretty soon Cassandra, LaSia, Gina, and Sally came down and found me. They all asked if I was okay since they hadn’t seen me come up and I said I was fine it just wasn’t something that I could really do. Then they wanted to walk around the flea market again and this time I bought the thing for Mom that I had looked at before. There was also an adorably cute little dog. We looked at lots of rings and lots of old things that were kind of cool and I was like that would be cool to have but a pain to get home. Next time I do Europe I’m bringing an empty suitcase full of bubble wrap to get cool stuff home. I already have some poster like things I’m worried about getting home. So who knows! I wish I could just send a big box of clothes home because I have a lot here that because it is getting colder I won’t be using and now it is just taking up space… Oh well.

After we walked around the flea market it was time to head back to the bus to go to Rousillion. The talk on the drive there was more on topic. We learned the legend of why the Ochre is the red color. One day the sort of like queen of the area had sex with a lover while her husband was away. The husband found out and took the lover out in the woods and killed him and cut his head off and then took out his heart. Before anyone noticed the lovers disappearance the King took the heart to the cook and had him make a sauce out of it for lunch. Then after eating lunch with the Queen he told her that the sauce that she liked so much was her lovers heart and so she screamed and instantly went running off the cliff and died. And so it was the 80m fall that killed her and her blood stained the rocks red.

That’s all total baloney but I thought it was interesting. There’s a lot of weird stories like this where cheaters unknowingly eat their loved ones bodies or stuff like that. I don’t like it. It actually gave me bad dreams last time that I saw a story like that in a movie. The whole idea to me is really gross and horrifying. That better never happen to me. I would throw up and then kill myself too.

When we got to Rousillion it was really cloudy so they almost said forget it but we got off with instructions that if it starts to rain we all come back to the bus otherwise we would be there for an hour.  We started walking and just by looking at the village the houses were all much more of a red color than a beige tope color. It was cool! Then we started going up further and we started to see the Ochre! It was so pretty! The college paid our entry into the walking park. There is a cave tour too but we didn’t do that. But I would it sounds cool! We walked in and it was Soooo pretty. I thought it was so cool because it really does look just like a desktop background. The colors were gorgeous and I can see why people choose to paint it because it is just awesome. I want to find a good painting of it because it was really gorgeous. Some people who live in like Colorado weren’t very impressed but they said it made them miss home. Which I could understand. If we went to an Oregon forest looking place I probably wouldn’t be as impressed but just homesick.

We went on the walking tour which was on sand which was also changing colors as the rocks did so I think that it was more natural that nother people did. They said they imported it, but I think it changed to well to be like that plus the Ochre wasn’t super rough. There were two paths to take, the shorter one and the longer one. We took the longer one. My group like to walk really fast and not take very many pictures so I was constantly struggling behind them but they would stop and wait for me. It was a lot of down so I was worried for the up. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but I did stop three times to catch my breath/ relax the cords.

When we got to the top again we took a bunch of pictures and then headed out. There was a dog that seemingly had no owner but had a cone on its head and had had a fix surgery by the looks of it walking around. Gina was very concerned that the dog didn’t have an owner but I said well it looks fed and has had surgery so it must be someones. She asked a lot of people though if it was theirs. After that I had to go to the bathroom. But the thing was they were self cleaning bathrooms again, but this time less organized. You couldn’t tell if when you closed the door it would think there was no one there and then clean or not. So it was a pretty scary deal. I tried twice to go in but then the lights would go off and I would freak out and run out not wanting to have a shower. Eventually I figured out how to get the light to stay on by not touching anything and then went fast and left. It was a pretty scary ordeal and fiasco! Some self cleaning bathrooms are nicely organized so it makes sense but these ones were not. I even followed the English directions but they were no help because then the lights would go off and leave me in the dark. It was scary.

After that I bought a chocolate ice cream cone for only 2 Euros! We had to get back on the bus though. You know those people who take a really long time to eat ice cream because they lick it slowly and are really careful? Yeah I’m not one of those people. I wolfed that sucker down. It was so good though. Totally worth it!

When we got back on the bus it started raining so we had really good timing. When we got on the bus I was exhausted. I just put on my headphones to block out the incessant talking of the guide who was now really not talking about anything in particular, and went to sleep. I woke up and we were back in Aix and the bus was stopping close to my house so I hopped off and went home.

When I got there, Madame was just sitting down to watch the movie Jane Eyre so I decided to join her. It was pretty good but also pretty messed up with some of the characters. I could follow pretty well though so that was good. After that we had chicken and potatoes from the market for dinner, bread and cheese, and then Madame put another plate in front of me. Usually we are done at this point so I was like what's going on? And she was like it's a surprise! She put sugar and nutella on the table, and then jam. And then came out with a pile of crepes! YAY! It was a very good surprise. She told me that we have enough for tonight also! Woo hoo! 

After that I skyped the Fam. Spencer and Megan went to see my parents so they were there for the Skype call as well. It was good. I miss them. But I am for the most part having a good time. I can't wait for Fall break!

Nimes

This morning I woke up at 7. I changed and ate breakfast and all that. It sucked getting up. I took a motion sickness pill and then headed to the bus. It took me longer to get there than I had planned but luckily I had planned to get there early. So it was all good.

We got on the bus and Cassandra and I were so exhausted we both just slept. Usually I look out the window to figure out where we are but this time I was too tired. We woke up in Nimes and then proceeded to be told that this is the place where Jeans were first invented and that now they make a lot of them and export them. We got off and went into this big garden thing where we were to walk around.

I am so tired right now and this is the last thing that I want to be doing… I think I’m going to just hit the highlights and come back to this later.

Cassandra and I split from the tour because they were going too fast so we decided to ditch it. Also then there weren’t a million people in our pictures. After that we looked at a ruin thing. The garden was cool and had lots of stairs that we went up and down a lot.

We got lost a bit and then found our way to the top which was like a tower thing.

It was cool but costed money so we skipped it. After that we went to find the Arena. It was cool too and the worlds best entact arena.It was cool and we used audioguides. After that we had lunch. And then went back to the bus. Then we went to the pont du gard. Biggest intact aqueduct, the one you see in text books.Then we went home. I met Patrick for Dinner because Cassandra didn’t want to spend money. It was fine.We got chocolate and Pizza. Then I came home.
 

I had the place to myself and it was 9, so I decided it probably wasn’t too late to wash my hair super fast. And I really was super fast. Then Madame came home and scolded me for washing my hair so late. Then yelled at me that I didn’t dry it with a hair dryer I just left it wrapped in a towel.Then I started writing this and she scolded me for putting my blog on the internet. Then she told me not to put anything about her on the internet. But I feel like nothing I put on here is very personal… And im going to erase it when I get home anyways and put it as a book. Maybe that’s why I don’t want to write this. I feel sufficiently scolded. And now I feel like I am not excited to write about my day.

Tomorrow I go to the Louberon region where I will do this :

8h45 - Meet at HOTEL DU ROI RENE

10h - Lourmarin Village - Tour of the Château and the Cemetary, visit village

12h30 - Lacoste village - visit village and picnic alongside château

14h30 -  Roussillon - visit ocre mines and the village

18h - return to Aix

Should be fun maybe. Goodnight.

So to keep the integrity of how I felt that day/ the night I wrote this, I'm not going to change this. Instead I will add to it. Starting over.

This morning I woke up at 7. I changed and ate breakfast and all that. It sucked getting up. I took a motion sickness pill and then headed to the bus. It took me longer to get there than I had planned but luckily I had planned to get there early. So it was all good. We got on the bus and Cassandra and I were so exhausted we both just slept. Usually I look out the window to figure out where we are but this time I was too tired. We woke up in Nimes and then proceeded to be told that this is the place where Denim was first invented and that now they make a lot and export it. But do you see where the name Denim comes from? “De Nimes” meaning “from Nimes” became Denim.

We got off and went into this big garden thing where we were to walk around. It was really pretty cool. It was called the Jardin de la Fontaine.

Les Jardins de la Fontaine is a public park located in Nimes in the Gard . They are built around the original source dedicated to Nîmes Nemausus . Their architectural organization also highlights two monuments ancient major city, the Temple of Diana and the Tour Magne .

Les Jardins de la Fontaine was one of the first public parks' of Europe and is still today one of the most remarkable.

Les Jardins de la Fontaine was made in 1745 on the basis of these remains. They made it possible to highlight two other Roman monuments have particularly stood the test of time, the Temple of Diana and the Tour Magne, both of which I went to. The project was led by Jacques Philippe Mareschal , military engineer of King Louis XV and director of fortifications in the province of Languedoc .

In the Gallo-Roman period , the area of Jardins de la Fontaine included including baths of the city (which you can see some remains).

It was really pretty. My tour guide was going too fast for me to follow though so Cassandra and I decided to just split from them to look at the garden at our own pace. It was much more enjoyable that way. I didn’t know that they used to be roman baths but I kind of guessed when I saw stairs leading into the big pond. It was really cool though. There were SO many fish in the ponds. They were also all connected so there was a ton of space for the fish. There was even two white and one black swan. They were really pretty and just added to the mood . We looked around the temple of Diana which was really in ruins but was also really well preserved when you think about how old it is, which is funny because we don’t actually know how old it is. The whole temple is a bit of a mystery.

The Temple of Diana (Temple de Diane) is a Roman site in Nimes whose ultimate purpose remains a mystery, as does the origin of its name.

Believed by some to have been originally built sometime during the reign of Augustus - others say in the 2nd century - it has been suggested that the Temple of Diana may have been a library.

I think it is kind of cool that we don’t actually know what it was for. I think it is kind of fun to walk around it and just sort of guess. We walked up and down so many stairs my shins were starting to hurt. We had a bit of a problem finding the Tour Magne but we eventually found it. It was where the Romans made a big lookout tower kind of thing so that they could see enemies coming from far away. It cost money so we didn’t go up it but it was really cool. From far away from the city you can see the monument though because it is the highest point in the city.

It was really cool. We saw some stray cats on the way back down and it made me sad for them. Stray animals seem to be more of a problem here than in the states I feel like; or maybe they are just more under control in the states. I have noticed on the French Price is Right they don’t say to have your pets spayed or neutered. So maybe that is the problem. ;-)

After that we went and found some lunch at a café. I also bought a cookie which was the best chocolate chip cookie I have had in a very long time. Then we found a gift shop so I bought a book of postcards for two and a half euros which is a very good price for 12 postcards. Then we walked by the Maison Carrée which was closed because it was Sunday but it was still very nice to see! It is one of the best preserved Roman temples to be found anywhere in the territory of the former Roman Empire and was built in 16 BC. It was awesome but there were a bunch of like teenage boys like climbing on the side of it which if it that happened on a US monument I think that the US would be ALL over that. But no one seemed to care or mind.

Next we found our way to the Arena of Nimes which was SO amazing! It seemed so huge and I was shocked that it is so old and still standing when you think of all the wars and people that have lived and could have destroyed it. It is pretty cool. Now they have added wooden benches and use it two times a year for bullfights and they even have added a removable roof. I think it is cool that it is still used for the purpose that it originally had. They used to do like exhibitions of men barehanded fighting lions and also exhibited animals like a zoo. In the middle of the day though there would be public executions by tossing people into the ring with a lion, or even attaching them to a stake and putting them in with lions or bears. It was pretty intense. The public at that point would all leave to have lunch so the only people who watched this part was slaves who were scared to guard their masters’ seats, sounds pretty scary to me. After that they would have famous Gladiator fights and then either let the loser live or die. It was pretty violent.

It was really cool to see the amphitheater though and the audio guides were kind of fun but not very informative. They were more for like imagining what it was like during the period but not really informative with information.

After that we headed back to the bus to go to the Pont de Gard.

The Pont du Gard (literally: Gard Bridge) is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge that crosses the Gardon River[4] in Vers-Pont-du-Gard near Remoulins, in the Gard département of southern France. It is part of the Nîmes aqueduct, a 50 km-long (31 mi) structure built by the Romans to carry water from a spring at Uzès to the Roman colony of Nemausus (Nîmes). Because the terrain between the two points is hilly, the aqueduct – built mostly underground – took a long, winding route that crossed the gorge of the Gardon, requiring the construction of an aqueduct bridge. Built in the 1st century AD, the Pont du Gard is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and is the best preserved with the Aqueduct of Segovia. It was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1985 because of its historical importance.

It was definitely cool to see but we spent a lot of time there looking at it. Cassandra and I walked the bridge so that we could say we did, but then after that we decided to just sit and look at it from far enough away that we could see the whole thing. I was glad for the break from walking. We both were. We even tried opening some acorns from an acorn tree just for fun. It was really a cool bridge but we were too tired to want to walk around it more. 

The bus ride home we went through Tarascon and looked at the castle there. We didn’t really stop but George said there isn’t really anything else there other than the castle. When we got home I was exhausted. I got a message from Patrick wanting to do dinner and I said sure because I was hungry. Madame was going to the movies and Saturday nights I have to ea out anyways so I said sure. It ended up being just the two of us. We went and got a pizza and then split it. Then we walked to the convenience store so I could get some chocolate. I have such a sweet tooth here it is like crazy. I’m going to weigh 35589 pounds when I come back but at least I will be happy! J It was good. We went and sat at a fountain and just talked for a while knowing we would get told we weren’t out long enough if we went home. He told me he has a super rich roommate who drives a Porsche! I was like dang that’s cool and he was like yeah he lets me drive it sometimes but I’m always terrified I am going to crash it. I’m not surprised! I would be! I can’t imagine actually owning a car like that because I would be too scared to drive it. 

When I got home no one was home and it was only nine on a Saturday so I figured it wouldn’t be bad to wash my hair because it was starting to get greasy. SO I washed my hair over the tub with the handheld thing which I think is the only good part about that thing. When I was putting the towel on Madame came home and wondered where I was. I told her I was in the bathroom, she said doing what and I opened the door and said that I washed my hair super quick. She said “at this hour!?” I said I knew no one was home and it was still early so it would be okay. It was not. She got mad and said I was going to get sick and then yelled at me telling me that I needed to use the hairdryer now or else I was going to get sick.

I felt sufficiently scolded but I honestly thought it was okay because it was a weekend and not very late and I live in Oregon so I go to bed with wet hair all the time no problem… It was really sucky and kind of killed my good mood pretty quickly. 

After that I pretty much just went to bed after sitting in silence with the tv for a while in the living room trying to not take it personally and trying not to cry. I talked to Thad but he was stressed out too so the whole communication thing just wasn’t working. Eventually I just went to bed and tried to forget the night ever happened. I guess now I know….

Hugs and Salsa

Today I woke up at 10 ish and took a shower. I was in the midst of cutting getting a breakfast together when Cassandra messages if I wanted to get pizza, it being almost 11. I said sure and that I would be up in a bit. I dried my hair and ate some apple sauce and banana before going to meet up with her.

When I got to the cave Patrick was there too and he invited us to go Salsa dancing tonight. I said sure I can't dance but why not try?! So that was the plan. We went and walked to dominos and discovered that they had a student special for a pizza and two drinks for 7 euros. So we decided that doing two of those would be the most cost effective. We got bacon and Hawaiian. The bacon was more like ham and chicken than anything else. I ate the Hawaiian one though. The cashier did not like us but we were like he whatever. We tried to speak French. Sorry that we aren't native but what we said was correct even if we have an accent. But oh well.

We are and talked a lot about politics which I guess was my fault because I brought up the government shut down because I didn't know if it was really over yet. We talked a lot about politics but it was nice that it never really got too heated. Which is a good thing. The pizza was almost the same as dominos back home but with more crust and less pizza sauce and cheese. But it was a bit like a taste of home.

We eventually left after about an hour and a half there and then went to the new building to chill. I tried to watch project runway on my iPod but none of the sites would let me watch it. So after grumbling I ran back (not literally) to my house to grab my laptop to torrent it. Unfortunately because it was so new I couldn't find a torrent. So that was annoying. So then I went about trying to change my proxy to a US proxy in order to watch it. It took a while for me to figure out how to do it but once I did it started working. Sort of. It would pause a lot and the graphics quality was really bad so I couldn't really see the clothes anyways which was really annoying. Finally it just stopped working so I was like screw it I'm going to google who wins. So now I know but I didn't actually get to watch it... >:-(

After that I watched one of Spencer's videos on YouTube before it was time for the wine tasting! We tried four wines again this time from the Bordeaux region. I'll put the names in later and info when I have time but to get through this post to go to sleep I will wait until I have more time.

I really liked the last one though which was a sweet white wine. It seriously tasted like honey and you could not taste ANY alcohol. It was delicious but very sugary. I liked it a lot.

After that I chose to help stick around like last time to help clean up and ended up being the washer. Last time the system was really slow and bad so I set up a new one not entirely on purpose but because no one knew what to do so I took charge. Sort of. Nobody knew where the big bowls for rinsing the glasses were so everyone was standing around. I said he might as well start while they look for them. So I took some glasses to the sink and started rinsing and putting them in a new pile. Kelan noticed and started bringing and taking the glasses and then everyone else started drying. So today I washed 120 wine glasses. By the time they found the rinsing bowls I was going faster than the bowls would of and was already almost done. So I win! It went a lot faster than the last time too.

After that I went home and IMed for a bit before going down to hang with Paul. We played connect 4 and the he showed me his marbles and then his garbage pack dudes. They are just like little monster rubber dudes that you buy in plastic garbage cans. Trash pack is what I think they are called. Paul had a double of one so he gave it to me as a souvenir. It was sweet. Also he gave me a HUG today! Whhhhaaaatttt!!!!! That's the first hug since I have been here because hugging is REALLY not a thing for the French. They kiss way more than hug ever. It was crazy. I miss hugs though. Madame gave us some strawberries and they were actually good size ones. They were very delicious. I told Madame I was planning to go out tonight and she told Laurence and they were like asking me about where and with who and all that. Unfortunately, I didn't have much to tell them since I had no clue!

We came home and had the rest(?) of the vegetable soup. It was super good again. It filled me up too. After that we had bread and cheese and I learned that Camembert cheese will get stronger once you cut into it and that cheese is why the fridge always smells weird here. The more you know! Then I went an changed to go out and put on makeup even. I used eyeliner because it looked fun and I thought I did a pretty okay job. When I was done I came out and Madame like freaked out like I was going to Prom and made me wait while she tried to take pictures with her phone. It was a bit of an experience. She kept moving it when it was trying to focus and so it kept not taking the picture. So I had to try and explain to her how to do it.

After that I went to the Rotonde and met up with a bunch of people. There were probably about 12-15 of us. A lot more people than I thought but it was fine. We set off after waiting for everyone in the direction of the place we were going. It was actually pretty far away. It would have been closer if we had taken a different rout but oh well. We got there and learned the fee to get in was 7 euros plus a euro coat check fee but it came with a free drink. We kind of said eh whatever it's for the experience.

When we got in we learned that the lessons had already started and costed money so we went downstairs where there was a big room and one f the girls who was kind of in charge of the outing taught us some basic salsa moves. It was awkward but fun and it was nice to have a big room to ourselves because at 9:45 it was still early. It was fun. Eventually we moves upstairs to get drinks. I got a planteur which I have no idea what was in it and it tasted like a cardboard box. But it was free. I still don't know if there was alcohol in it but at the price for drinks at that place I called it quits after that.

They started playing music and we all tried dancing. Key word here being tried. It was fun but also hard. I danced with a couple girls and we all danced as a group as well. After a while I was done feeling embarrassed and sat down. I decided I liked watching the dancing more than dancing it. More people started to show up and it became clear that they knew how to salsa. They were really cool to watch. The drinks were very small so no one really drank much except for this one guy who also smoked. He had two glasses of whiskey. After being there for 2 1/2 hours I was falling asleep and Cassandra and I decided to leave. Patrick offered to walk us home since he lives in the same directionish as I do. So he left with us. It was fun though some of the guy dancers asked a few of the girls to dance and they looked like they were having fun. Lasia complimented me on my eyes and said they were very pretty and the. Later Sally said the same thing! So that was pretty cool. I told Lasia that I never wear makeup and she said I did a super good job which was cool.

On the way home we hears more of is behind us and waited for another group to walk home with us. It was fun and I got walked until I was about five minutes from home and it was all populated streets to home so I was happy departing there and Patrick double checked if I needed a walk home and I said I was good. At 12 there were still lots of people on the streets.

After that I came home and changed and in the process of sneaking around dropped my iPod and I was like oooh bad move I bet I woke up Madame but she was happily snoring away. It was good. Then I wrote this and went to sleep.

Tomorrow I am going to Nimes and I have to be there at 8:15. Gross.

Life as per Usual

Alors qu’est-ce que j’ai fait aujourd’hui…

I say this every night when I start my journal. Madame likes that I write it and she thinks it is a cool idea. We have a few nightly rituals. She plays with Beebow and gets mad when he bites her and then he falls asleep on her lap. Then she falls asleep until I yawn or cough or get up and then she decides to go to bed.

Last night I watched What’s Your Number because I couldn’t sleep. Then I had a bunch of weird dreams again. Also one of the things I feel bad about here is going to the bathroom in the middle of the night because about half the time I wake up Madame because these doors are so loud. But its like I won’t be able to sleep unless I get up… But then I feel bad. I was talking about this predicament with a group of others students today and they all agreed that it is one of our biggest difficulties with living with host parents.

I woke up five minutes before my alarm and went and took a shower. It was good but showers here are never actually very good. It is a continuous cycle of water on and off so when you are doing soap you are standing there all wet in the cold because it isn’t cold enough here to turn on the heat yet. It is not a very fun experience. But I do like having clean hair sooo… it must be done! After that I made a PB&J for lunch as well as eating two kiwis and my roll for breakfast.  

I got to class early as usual and was going to sit in our classroom as also usual but then there was a clas in there, which there isn’t supposed to be. So that was awkward to walk in on. So then I sat on the stairs to wait and see if they would leave soon. Then a girl names Gina came in and we talked for a while. She offered me a tomato I kindly declined, also she offered me a doughnut thing which I gladly accepted. It was good and tasted like a sugar doughnut. She is kind of an odd duck but she is really nice. Pretty soon Cassandra came in as well and we decided to run to the store so I could buy some mandarin oranges. We did that and it passed without any problems. Gina went and pet some ladies dogs. And we all talked about our pets at home. When we got back to the school the class was still invading our room so we sat on the stairs and blocked it all. Then we would move for people. We knew we were in the way but we didn’t really care and always moved for people, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Pretty soon Patrick came in too so we all were just like chilling waiting for the class to leave. Our professor came in about 10 minutes before our class and we told him our room was invaded and he said “Cool im going to go get coffee see you later” we all were like, he doesn’t need more energy! He is a very energetic professor and really funny. I like him a lot. He is also really young but has 2 PHD’s in History and Art History. But he isn’t like flashy about it. He also knows four languages I heard. He’s cool.

We had class and he said if any of us are going to Paris for the break we need to visit the Catacombs in Paris because they are super cool and full of tons of skulls. He said he wishes his skull was in there for people to look at for a hundred years or more. The pictures of it online look pretty creepy so I think it could be fun. We have a Midterm on next Tuesday.

After that class, I moved to the next building and ate my sandwich. One of the guys in the room was like hey want some of this candy and I was like sure so I tried it. It looked like spaghetti but multicolored and it was actually pretty good. Then I started eating my PB&J and he made fun of the way that I eat the top crust then flip it over to eat the bottom crust because those are my least favorite parts of the sandwich so I eat them first. He asked why I don’t just cut them off and I said because there are starving children in Africa (which isn’t very far from here…). After that I listened to a conversation about the bar/club scene and was not sad that I haven’t been. It sounds very expensive and not like something that I would be into.

After that I went upstairs to class and told my professor I had a copy of City of Angels if he wanted to see it because it was so similar to the movie we were watching. He said he looked it up and the reviews said it was a more hollywooded rip off. I said yep but it is still good. So he had me copy it onto his jump drive (which no one knows what that is here USB, Flash drive yes but no Jump drive). We watched the end of the movie and I really didn’t like the second half like at all. But oh well. I have a one page paper to write on it which is like nothing for my midterm.

After class I went downstairs to read in the library but it was so loud I decided to forget it because I couldn’t concentrate. Then I decided that I would go try the other library in the other building. I hadn’t ever really explored it but it is actually kind of cool! There is a spiral staircase to a second floor where you can duck under an arch. The school used to be a monastery chapel so there are cool arcs and stone columns and stuff. And they kept most of them when they made it into a not church building. It is pretty cool though. But also of course people have vandalized it. But it is a pretty cool space. I found a spot on the floor to lay down out of the way and read for about an hour. It was quieter but still obnoxious. After a while I went to the cave to take a break as I knew Cassandra would be getting done with her class soon.

She came down not two minutes later when I was writing a Facebook message to Barnett. She wanted ice cream so we went to Monoprix and got some little cups of it for pretty cheap. It did not come with spoons though and the cashiers were mad at us because we broke bills instead of using coins so we didn’t want to ask if they had some. So I was resourceful and grabbed two of the plastic coffee stirring things. They were flimsy but worked surprisingly well. I only flicked ice cream all over myself one time. So that was good. We sat infront of a fountain to eat. After that I bought a slice of Pizza because my moms facebook status about pizza made me crave it.

Then I went home and read a bunch. I’m on page 190/980 so I’m about a fifth of the way done. It is exhausting but I am kind of getting the hang of it. I imagine that I will spend a lot of time tomorrow reading. But I also have a wine tasting. I want to get really far ahead as fast as possible so that a) I don’t have to worry about it over break b) I can be done with it sooner.

Madame came up and made dinner and then Paul showed up to play games before his mom finished making their dinner, and then shortly left. We had lentils and sausage. It was good I don’t mind lentils but the portion was too much for me again. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten the pizza two hours earlier… oops. Oh well.  

Madam and I started watching Godzilla because she had never heard of it before. But of course she fell asleep. She presented me with a phone prolem I couldn’t fix of how to put her camera pictures on her SD card. I got it so that future pictures will be saved to it but not her existing pictures. She is going to ask tomorrow when she goes in to get a case for it. But it is cute how she asks me about everything for her phone. Even if it is like “Do you want this phone so save pictures from you camera to the SD card” she comes and is like is this what I want? And I explain to her the benefits and such.

I have been really thirsty today so I have been drinking lots of water which inevitably means I will have to get up in the middle of the night again… :-/ That sucks. But today was a pretty average day in the French school life. Nothing too exciting but got some work done. Tomorrow I have another wine tasting in the afternoon so that should be fun!

Hoogity Boogity boo, Yesterday is Through

Today I woke up around 7:45 and went and had breakfast. Madame asked me how to turn off the smart texting on her phone that makes words from letters you are started putting in so I had to figure out how to do that. After that I had breakfast and orange juice and got dressed. I decided to wear my green sweater today because yesterday it was cold and rainy.

 I walked to class. It was not cold and rainy today it was HOT. So when I got to the classroom I ditched the sweater for a while and sat in the window in my tank top. Then I felt better. Will came in and I started talking about how last time I was sitting by this girl who wouldn’t stop smacking her gum. Pretty soon she came in and sat by me…. So I got up and moved across the room to a seat with an outlet so I could pretend that was why I was moving. As soon as I got up Will smirked at me and I gave him a look. Class was pretty good though we looked at a map and on Monday we are going to the Cathedral for class so that will be fun!

After class I walked with Patrick to get lunch on his way home. I got a baguette and a few mandarins. I wasn’t really hungry though. Then I went down to the cave and watched Spencers Minecraft videos. I totally called that the chest would be there. Win for me! (That will make no sense to anyone but him.) After that I said I could go shut myself up somewhere to read this boring book… orrrr I could watch Project Runway. So I did that for a couple of hours.  Sarah gave me some of her Tarte Tropezienne to try which is the speciality of Saint Tropez. It was pretty good. Not my favorite but good even so. I bought myself a hot chocolate and a tea during my sitting in the cave. Pretty soon LaSia came down and when she learned I was watching Project runway she freaked and came and sat by me to watch it. It was fun. It’s always more fun to watch Project Runway with someone so you can talk about the design. It was fun. These girls came in and sat down and started talking loudly about Obamacare and LaSia and I exchanged a few messages over iPod about what they were saying (they were very misinformed). It was fun. Eventually we ran out of episodes as the finale is on tomorrow night so I won’t get to maybe watch it until Friday. Boo.

She had class so she left and then I went to the other building to pay for my trip to Nimes this weekend with George on Saturday. After that I went and bought a chocolate bar because I was craving it. Then I sat down and read about 15 pages before Patrick and Cassandra came in and paid for Barcelona/Nimes. We got to talking and Patrick was trying to convince me to go walk to the library to see if the history packets were there for class tomorrow. I said I was too lazy and I would get it on my way home from class. He left and then Cassandra was like oh hey what are these packets on this bookshelf? Oh hey they are the history packets. Win. So we were like yay being lazy! Sucks to be Patrick because now he won’t find them because they are in this library… Oops. Too late. After talking to Cassandra a bit I went to class.

There was some confusion because there was a sign on the door that class was cancelled but then we didn’t know if that was old from Monday or if that was new so we had to go back down to the front desk and ask. But then our professor walked in not a minute later so we were like well guess we do have class. We got our tests back and I got a C. But I did fail it by American standards as I got 10/20. But I guess they grade things differently here? So I was very happy. I still know I did horrible but it is nice that the grades are different. We did some translation stuff and it was good. At one point the teacher came and looked at my work and was like received is spelled received not recieved. I was like… Oh. Oops. I knew that. Then when I was writing I wrote “whould” which is a word that I made up and thought was real, meaning who should. I was like looking at it and was like…. What is that? That’s not even a word!!! I laughed out loud and then my professor was like what are you laughing about? So then I had to explain it.

My professor is really nice. I like her a lot. She knows what she is talking about but is like more soft spoken but also fun. It’s a good class. I like it once I am finally sitting in it.

I came home and read another bit of pages and then Paul came up with some cars toys. He and I talked about the movie Cars and Planes. He made obstacle courses for the cars and raced them and had me count the seconds it took. I also had the job of lifting the couch a bit when one of the cars went under it. Madame came up and was not very happy with Paul I could tell. Before I started reading I was going to go down and hang out with them but I could hear them arguing. So I decided to skip that one. Madame had made soup for tonight so the whole apartment smelled very delicious. She went to cooking croutons/ pieces of baguette to put in the soup and blending it. When we finally sat down it was sooooo good. We put some garlic flavoring in it and it was so good. Paul had butternut squash and potato sound because he doesn’t like any vegetable and then we had vegetable soup. It was delicious. I had two bowls and was like Yes this was really good. After that Madame made Paul some pasta and let me try this meat thing with bread? It was weird but with pickles it was good. I miss the pickle taste. I think I might go buy a jar and eat carrots and pickles one of these days. I really like that taste combo as weird as it sounds. Plus then I won’t get leg cramps!

After that I had a mandarin and decided to see if Thad was on Skype. He was so I went to my room to get on and Paul joined me. Once we got Thad online I made Paul say hello and what is your name and how are you so that he could practice the English that he has learned in school. It was fun and he was embarrassed and shy so it was cute. Oh also at dinner he said that me and the first girl that Madame has had and been host for are have been his favorites. So that was kind of cool. I guess I am not terrible with kids which is good. Well at least with French kids.

After that I talked to Thad for a little bit by myself before he had to run off to do his passport stuff for May when his school does a three week Juniors Abroad. He plans on going to Israel/Jordan. So that should be fun for him.

Tonight we have been watching some kind of like show… Specific I know. I don’t remember what she told me the name of it is, but a BUNCH of popular French artists get together and do this huge concert/show which is really cool. Its like the VMA’s but bigger and cooler and more like a community. But yeah they do this big show for free and then they sell tickets to it, make cd’s of it, and make DVD’s of it and then sell them and all the proceeds go to feeding people who don’t have the money to buy food. I probably could have written that a lot more eloquently had I been more used to English. But it is really a cool idea. And I bet it makes a ton of money because it is really cool! Now I am tired and sleepy. I get to sleep in tomorrow though which is awesome. Also today was Laundry day! This week went by super fast! Les Enfoirés Madame says it is, and they happen every year. Pretty cool!

Post title courtesy of Cassandra

Reading and Movies

I had a really good nights sleep. I slept for eleven hours but because of this I had really weird dreams. I dreamed that I was at my hour in St. Helens but none of my family was there and then a friend of mine was super drunk and was like I don’t do this but I want to drive my car. And I was like no. No you will not do that. So then I had to convince her in my dream not to do that. It was annoying. So then I woke up and was like that was weird, must be time to get up soon. Nope its 4:30. Hahaha Win! After that I had two more weird dreams but I don’t remember them. But they seemed really long I remember. I woke up and was like was that all one night? Awesome!

I woke up at ten and took a shower and shaved. I really can’t wait to take a real shower. I think I will do that when I go to Paris. I will be so pumped for that. After I took a shower I got dressed and had breakfast and made myself a PB&J for lunch. I learned that Peanut butter in the US is more spreadable than Peanut butter here. I don’t know why though. Maybe because the peanut butter in the US is newer? Because they were both the same brand? So that’s what I learned.

I went to class and got there early as usual so I put up my blog. I was going to start reading my lit book but I gave up on that because I wasn’t awake enough. I was really hyper and talking to Patrick, LaSia, and Gina before class. Class started and we got our tests back. I got an A- so that was good but then he went off for 45 minutes about how we didn’t do our papers right and we were supposed to do a bunch of outside documents. Which I thought meant the documents for the class which are all historical documents like a DBQ. Sooo he was unclear about that. But I got an A- so now I know for next time and don’t really care. Class went by fast after that because we had started ten minutes late to begin with and then with the talk we didn’t cover much new material.

After that I went to my Lit class and turned in my paper and we started watching a film called The Wings of Desire. It is about angels and Berlin and it reminded me SOOOO much of the film The City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. It was like uncanning so I wonder if that director saw this film and then stole a bunch of the ideas to make it in the US with US actors. It is a pretty cool film. I am liking it so far I think. Plus I like not having to have a discussion. I like discussing books but with this group I don’t really like it. The same people dominate the conversation and make it hard for anyone else to join in.

After class I went and bought a soda and then decided to go home and read to try to get somewhere in this big book. I was reading when Madame came home and was like oh what’s that big book? I showed he and she was like geez that’s hard stuff even if it is in English and I was like yeah I don’t like it. She laughed and then went to watch Paul. I stayed and read and reached the 100 page mark. It still is really boring…. But I am a tenth of the way through. So hopefully I will get done with it by mid November… Without having to tread during fall break. But we will see. I would like to finish it as quick as possible. But it is so boring to read I am not sure how well I will do at that.

After that I started watching an episode of Project Runway that I torrented when Madame came back and we had dinner. We had salad with chicken. It was pretty good. She put avocados on it which wasn’t my favorite but I just sucked it up and ate them.

After that we I watched the Social Network and Madame slept J

Not a very exciting day but I got a lot of reading in which is good! 100 pages closer to being able to start the fourth Game of Thrones!