Baptistery

This morning I was so tired I woke up at 7:30 to go to the bathroom and then said screw it and went back to bed until 8. I went to get breakfast and found Madame had bought pain au chocolat’s instead of rolls this time! They don’t even need anything put on them! It was a win so I grabbed a banana and some oranges and had breakfast really fast because I got to skip getting a bunch of dishes and things out. I brushed my hair put on clothes and then headed out. It was harder to put on clothes today as I couldn’t lean four inches forward without a lot of back pain. I am missing my chiro… Like a lot. I think I might ask housing what the situation is with that and if the insurance we have pays for those. Plus I need to talk to her anyways from my last visit to get my money back.

So I got to school and went and put my laptop in my locker knowing that today we were having a visit to the cathedral so I would have to carry it around in my backpack for an hour. I decided that was a bad idea. So the locker was a smart move. We went and met outside the cathedral and then started out class after checking everyone was there. My professor first started by asking if any of us were gypsy or arab because I guess on the news there is a big thing going around that a girl was taken out of a class trip by the police because they found the parents in france illegally but then their born on French soil daughter had to go with them I guess that is the gyst from what I understood but then now it is a big question of rights and stuff so that’s why he brought it up so we would be aware of it.

We went into the cathedral and learned today about the baptistery. It was pretty cool looking and pretty pretty. We learned that a lot of it has been redone since 120 BC. SURPRISE! And a bunch of stuff about the room like that the doors to enter was the west and leaving was the east so that you would enter towards the sun/god. That was kind of a cool idea to me. Also we learned that there are eight pillars because the resurrection happened on the eighth day. Which is not to say he was in the grave eight days but it is an expression. In other words, I do believe that Jesus rose on the third day.   The third day after he was in the grave three days and three nights and the third day He rose from the dead.   It wasn’t eight days, but from another standpoint, even a biblical stand point; He was the firstborn of a new creation, the eighth day that’s referred to in the Bible as a new beginning. (Found on the internet not my words but I was curious myself) But I thought that was pretty cool. We talked about the baptism bath and how they did used to do full dunks before the Catholic started doing sprinklings. And then after that they added oil on the shoulders after the baptism because the oil was supposed to keep the devil from getting to you because he would slide off? Not sure how much to believe but I will keep it for now so I remember it for my tests. The room itself was pretty cool and used to only have one window directly above the pool so I thought that was pretty dramatic.

After that we went and walked around and found these little tiny streets that you could barely walk side by side with someone on which were what road in the first century were like. Very small! After that class was done and I went back to the school. I watched Spencers Minecraft videos and ate some oranges and then we tried to set up a livestream but it didn’t work today. Then I spent a lot of time fixing some of my blogs/ writing them and also uploading pictures to Facebook before it like started erroring out and not letting me anymore. Then I took blogs and edited them and put them up on the WOU blog which I haven’t remembered to do all month… oops. I knew I would always forget to do that while I was here. I even said that at the very beginning! But I did that and it took a very long time. I ran to the a place and got a slice of pizza for lunch and then a friend of mine gave me the rest of their lunch that they were going to throw away. But that was in the middle of all the uploading and blog changing.

Cassandra came down and gave me my package slip to take to the other building to redeem my package(s) so then we went to get a snack at the Casino and then I went to get my package. I was glad the heating pad was here because I was really in need of it! I went and watched project runway with my heating pad and by the time it was over I had to go up to class in the other building so I packed up all my stuff and marched over there. Class was pretty good and not super hard. Our final on Wednesday isn’t something that is study able because it is going to be a translation from French to English and then one vice versa so really there isn’t a way to study. But I kind of like that because then I can’t get really stressed out over it, which is a good thing. But also scary because I don’t know how well I will do on it since I sort of struggle with my verb tenses and their English equivalents so maybe I will try to study that. Because I know them all I just forget them so fast.

After class I packed all my stuff home and then went and talked to Madame. I gave Beebow his mice fro mom and he loved them. I think they might not have catnip here because I tried to explain it to Madame and she had no idea what I was talking about. We watched French Price is Right and I studied for my History midterm tomorrow over a really broad subject that is all but one week of what we have studied so far. I’m a little nervous for the test and also not looking forward to doing it. After the show got over we had dinner. Madame told me that tonight we were trying something new and I had a gut feeling it was going to be the fish soup. It was. It was also not very good… I said I didn’t really like it much when she asked so that she wouldn’t make it again because I really didn’t like it. It was purr’ed thank goodness or I would have died but it still just tasted like salty stinky fish. I tried to cover it up with croutons and cheese but that just made it worse because I have to chew the croutons instead of swallowing the soup as quick as I could to not taste it. I only threw up in my mouth once. Which I count as a success. About half way through the bowl Paul called Madame so I was saved a bit of time to recoup. I strongly considered how long I would have until she came back and whether I could quickly dump it but then decided it would be really bad if I got caught doing that. But I was struggling to get any more down. I ooured myself a big glass of water and tried to keep going. Fortunately Paul came in to show me a big snake toy he bought at Ikea. It was taller than him standing up. It was very long. It was a puppet too so he really liked it. I have the most fluent conversations with Paul and I seem to understand him the best of everyone. He even has a more advanced vocabulary than me and I still understand him better than anyone else. I don’t know why. Maybe he just uses more common phrases?

When Paul left Madame came and sat down and then looked at me and took my bowl away half done. I think she could tell by a look on my face or something but she knew I didn’t like it. She said well don’t force yourself this isn’t Germany and then brought out cheese for me. I had two helpings of that in place of dinner but I know I will be starving in the morning. I guess I was glad I got to try the soup but I am very glad to not need to again. Madame told me its too bad because it is good for my health just like Tomatoes. I refrained from saying yeah but they will kill my throat when I have to throw them up because my gag reflex hates them. I was already feeling sick from the soup.

After that we had crepes which were good I had a nutella, a sugar, and a jam crepe. All very good! Then I got online and Skyped Thad who I hadn’t talked to in a long while. It was nice to talk to him as always. We talked a lot about religious stuff today because I wanted to ask him about stuff I had learned about at the Cathedral. It was good but all too soon he had to go to lunch and signed out. He seems to have a hectic week ahead of him. After that I studied a little more and then Madame and I went to bed.

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.