Orange Juice in Orange/ Fete/Breaking Glass

Today I woke up at 8:30 to be ready to go to Orange at 10. I got up begrudgingly and decided to take a quick shower. Madame wasn't home so that made it less awkward. About half way through between shampoo and conditioner, Paul came into the apartment and started talking to me through the door. I decided to hurry it up. When I got out and was getting dressed he started telling me everything he was doing such as wearing my 3d glasses from last night. Here you buy your own pair and keep them so now I am a new owner of 3d glasses. Woo hoo. Also I don't remember if I put this in the other post but those theaters are much nicer than the ones in the states. It's like the first class vs economy on airplanes but with movie theaters! Same with their 3d glasses. They look like hipster glasses rather than crappily made ones.

I got out and he played my iPod while I ate breakfast and finished getting ready. Then Jean-Claude came up and took Paul. I was pretty much done though so I finished a few more things and then Madame came up putting stuff in bags so I helped her with that. We carried our bags downstairs and then I grabbed the garbage and took it out. After that we loaded all the bags. Paul wanted to sit in the back/trunk but I told him he couldn't because there wasn't a seat belt. Last time I sat on the side and Madame sat in the middle in the back but this time I told her I would sit in the middle.

It was only like an hour and twenty in the car so it wasn't too bad at all. Paul didn't have time to really get riled up. He played on Madame's phone and then played with my hands and even kissed my hand at one point. We stopped for gas once and Paul tried to get his dad to buy him candy but that didn't happen. There was a rugby team outside and Madame had showed me the start of a rugby match with the 'all black' versus France. France lost as the 'all black' have never been beaten. But when she saw them she told me to look at how big and strong they were I jokingly (obviously) said yeah just like me. We all laughed.

On the way there I learned that Madame had never been to the house as he had just moved recently. Paul mentioned that it was very big like a mansion. I was like on it's probably like average house size then. Nope it's a four story house built in the 18th century. You can tell too because it is really beautifully ornamented. The inside like plumbing and electricity and stuff has been redone but the style is the same. It has mosaic tiles on the floor and really ornamented above the doors and on the ceilings. There is also a ton of art.

We came in and set the table with the nice plates and wine glasses. I say wine glasses because that's what you drink at these parties. Wine. And lots of it. Yeah. Hopefully we don't drink them all. We also have already drank 6 bottles of champagne and 2 of red wine. Yep.

 

So after we drank three bottles of champagne in the kitchen, I was informed that it was champagne from the family of Dennis who is Madame's ex husband. Oh. Well that helps fill in some gaps as to why he was able to buy this house and all this art. He also is a bit of a chef and while we were in the kitchen he was making dinner which was a big leg of something. I just asked and it was gigot d’agneau which is lamb. We also had hors d'oeuvres of sausage and pierces of salami. Then a bit of cheese was brought out which we all tried and I learned that it was cheese with truffles in it. As in truffles that pigs sniff out and which ware super expensive. I was like. Well that was probably the most expensive thing I have eaten since I have been here. Then we tried a sauce with truffles in it. It was alright but honestly I didn't really taste the truffles they were just a texture.

We went outside and looked around the house. He has lots of art. Lots of art and interesting things. Madame pointed out a few things to me such as some big multicolor glazed pots which she said were really expensive.

 

It got time for lunch and I was definitely feeling the champagne. I then was switched from champagne to red wine. I was like Kay once I drink this I'm going to find some water. For lunch we had pasta with truffle sauce and the leg of the animal. The meat was super tasty. I didn't care much for the pasta though. It's hard to eat politely, that dang spaghetti. We also had lots of cheese. There was one type that Laurence told me I shouldn’t eat if I was going to be kissing anybody because it is very strong. I told her I definitely was not so I better have some! I did get some water and then we had cake after lunch. There were two kinds of cake. The tarte tropezienne and the castel cake. The tarte tropezienne I had tried before and it is kind of like brioche bread with a sort of creamy custard in the middle. The other was a sort of like... Coffeeish flavor but really not and not really chocolate either. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. It was good but by the ends I was full but then they made me have another piece so I was REALLY full. I just googled it is made with almond powder and the like cream part of it is with pralines. Both of which are flavors that I don’t really know so now I do! I was really done eating. When we were all done with dinner and cake I was really tired. Going to the movies at 10 the night before was probably not the smartest idea but it was fun, and I’m supposed to do those kinds of things when I am here right!? Right.

But anyways, after lunch and cake we did presents. I gave Matisse a finding nemo card memory game and Elise a blue Necklace that I brought but never wore in the states and was never probably going to wear here. She really liked it. Then we went for a walk. I guess that is a normal thing here is to go for a walk after a big meal. It does feel nice but it was pretty cold. It was really funny though because the big dog ‘papoof’ ran off and then they were trying to find him on our walk. There was another dog named cacahuète which I thought for some reason at first was dog poop which is caca, because the word seemed really familiar. It is actually Peanut which is why it is familiar because we talk about beurre de cacahuète all the time here!
 

 It was nice to walk around after such a big meal. I was a bit cold wearing leggings but it actually wasn’t that bad once we started walking. We walked on a road without many cars and where there were some girls riding horses. It was very pretty and sympa. The kids would run to the front and behind constantly. There was a little stream on the side and their Grandpa said the first one to go swimming would get 10 Euros! He was of course kidding. David (Madame’s son) would take Matisse (5) and holding onto him swing him over the creek and he would laugh. He also like leaned Elise over which was also really funny. We got to a point and everyone was like when is the end of this road, and Dennis was like well it’s in Spain so we stopped walking and turned around. Madame jokingly told me to keep walking and go back to visit Barcelona again because I liked it. I laughed.

 Side tangent: On the news recently was a story where some drunk like college aged people stole the llama from the circus in Barcelona and then just like walked him around the city all night. They took him on the metro and dressed him in a team jersey and everything. They didn’t harm it and then they returned it but it is a big story and now lots of people are going to the circus to see the llama.

At one point in the walk though the kids found a thicket of bamboo and took stalks of it and would hit each other with it. Eventually Paul and Elise stopped but Matisse kept going. He hit Dennis who told him to stop and when he didn’t he took him and threw him in the middle of the bamboo! It was really funny and Matisse came back with a new vengeance and laughing hysterically. He got a new piece of bamboo and came back and started hitting everyone (with the strength of a 5 year old so it didn’t hurt). He started to run ahead to hit Elise who was a ways ahead and on the way there his pants fell down!!! It was sooo funny! He was just running with his pants around his ankles with a bamboo stalk almost twice as tall as he was! It was quite a funny site.

When we got back to the house I went to chill with the kids in the living room while they played games and such and fell asleep on accident. Oops! So then everyone was like don’t wake her up! And the kids would like shush each other and stuff. When I did wake up like 45 minutes later everyone was like oh you must have been out late last night! And I was like yeah I went to a movie. They were fine with it though because I guess it is really normal here for teens to go out. In fact, before we left for Orange Madame was talking to Laurence who asked if I went out to a nightclub and Madame was quick to say no no it’s not her style. Madame likes to talk for me sometimes which is kind of nice. It’s because she is observing and learning more about me and likes to show that she knows. I like it :-)

After I woke up we had just a good family time. I went to the kitchen and watched Dennis cook for a while. He made me taste his sauces even if I said I was alright because he said he was the boss. His sauce was good though. Dennis put together a lego car for Matisse and I watched him do that and offered help. We drank more champagne of course too. Then we all went to the living room and watched a version of funniest home videos. It was very family-esque. For parties there aren’t really any rules you just do what you want which is good. Elise and I talked about Thad. She really liked taking my iPod and showing everyone a picture of Thad and I. :-) It was really cute. She said “look it’s Kacy’s lover!” There is a funny picture of us where I am attempting to kiss him and he is making a face. She was like you’ve kissed him! And I was like Yeah loads of times! She was shocked. She was more shocked that I had hugged him though. That is not a thing here so she was like wow are you going to get married? And I was like Maybe. Then her mind was blown.

After a while it got time for dinner. I watched Dennis cook the steaks and finish the sauce and I also helped set the table. Then we all sat down and had steak with sauce of mushrooms which were not truffles but another expensive mushroom which were… m-- I don't know. It was really good but very filling and I was already full so I refused cheese and more cake. Everyone was like she’s full! And this is how the French eat a bunch like this. It was funny. Also Dennis commented that I have an accent, and then they started talking about it but it was hard to keep up because they switch topics so quickly and everyone talks at the same time over each other. *I asked Madame today and she says I do for sure but she thinks that it is a pretty accent. She says some are pretty and some are not but mine is. She said not like Celine Dion hers is horrible. I laughed.*

After dinner we hung out a little bit more I think and I helped clean up a bit. Then we hung out in the living room some more before getting to bed. I slept upstairs in the kid’s playroom with Paul, Elise, and Madame. Paul and I had twin beds and Elise shared a big air mattress with Madame. It was quite an event for us all to get ready for bed. Paul was worried about falling out of bed because the mattress frame was really slick so we put some couch cushions under his bed so if he fell he wouldn’t be hurt. We also were on the top floor so it was freaking cold up there! The ceiling is actually like a preserved monument status. There are these two big tree trunks that stretch across the top and Madame was telling me that you can’t like modify the ceiling or paint or anything because the house is so old. I forgot to get a picture but because of this it wasn’t very well insulated so it was freaking’ cold. We each had 3 big blankets though so I didn’t get cold during the night.

 

I woke up to the giggling of Elise and Madame and Paul. Paul had climbed into bed with them and they were all playing footsie under the blankets. Every once in a while Madame would shush them so as not to wake them up but the silence didn’t last long before one of them would start giggling. Not a bad way to wake up honestly! However it was 7:30… I could have done without that but we had to be up early anyways. Pretty soon Matisse came up and joined the fun and there was no stopping the giggles then! I woke up finally and then Madame went downstairs to help figure out breakfast. Then the kids decided to have a pillow fight and because I was there of course I was made the victim of an all out attack. They piled all the pillows and cushions on me too and then were like try to get out. So ten I jumped out and scared them. It was pretty funny. Then we all went downstairs. I didn’t bother changing because the last time I did and then no one else was. We were all in our pajamas eating breakfast. We had he cake that Madame had made. Dennis also made me fresh squeezed orange juice which was pretty darn amazing!!! He has a swanky orange juice machine that he was excited to use and show off. And I wasn’t one to complain about delicious juice! Paul of course was reluctant to eat anything. He didn’t even drink his hot chocolate! He did spill a bunch of it though if that counts. After breakfast I helped clean up and got dressed. I also packed up all my stuff because I knew we were leaving in the morning because Dennis has a meeting or something somewhere.I then sat with Matisse for the better part of an hour while he played with Madames phone.

I went outside because the kids were out there playing. They had these empty beer bottles and were making like “drinks” and stuff by putting in leaves and dirt and rocks and things like that (Matisse put ‘poison’ in his). They had me be the shop owner who they would buy stuff from. They would just like take the plants and the leaves no matter how like central to the garden or view of the house was so I guided them away from those. Then once Matisse tried to take a gardening stake with a sharp point and I told him it was too expensive so he put it back. Crisis averted. Then after a while they wanted to put all their drinks in like a bowl. So they started trying to get all the leaves and stuff out by shaking them. But then suddenly Matisse broke his bottle and before I could process what to say the other two started breaking theirs too! I finally just started yelling Stop because they get told that as well as arête. They stopped and I made them put the glass in the bowl gently and then took it away and put it by a wall and said it was not allowed to touch. A piece of glass though hit my nose close to my eye so I am just glad that no one got hurt including me. That would really have sucked. Then they broke a bowl on accident so I went inside and ratted them out by saying there was broken glass. The adults then started paying attention and went and yelled at them for breaking things. So then David got a garbage bag and we picked up the pieces and packed up the car to leave.

We did kisses to everyone and then we got in the car and left. We drove through Orange and stopped in front of the theater where they still do opera things. It was really big… Then we went and drove around until we found the arc du triumph in the city. It was pretty big. On the way home Paul slept on me. It was kind of cool. Then we drove home.

When we got home we woke up Paul and grabbed all our stuff and got out. Then Madame went and talked to some neighbors with a dog. I came upstairs and put my stuff away before attempting to do some homework. Madame made lunch of pasta and chicken from the market and we ate lunch and talked and watched Friends. Madame broke a big glass bowl to a thousand pieces and i learned she has a vaccum as a result. the pieces went everywhere but everyone was fine. Then Madame went out to buy some bread. I gave up on homework because I was so tired and wrote a note saying I was taking a nap so that Madame would know where I was when I got home. The plan was to wake up at 3:30 but then it became 3:45, and then it became 4 and finally 4:15. I just could not bring myself to get up. My whole body just felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and I was stuck inside it. Blech. Finally I got up and found Madame sitting at the table with an ancient computer. David had given it to her to see if it worked and she could use it. I helped her get a bunch of photos on it before trying to update it and see if it could use wifi. It was pretty old though so I didn’t think it could. The whole process took several hours most of which was just waiting for it to process what it was doing. After that we watched Despicable Me which Madame had never seen. I told her I liked it a lot. Then we figured out the computer was not going to work but that I could put the photos on a flash drive for her if she bought one. So she is going to on Wednesday. We gave up on the computer. Then I did a little more homework and we had dinner. Tonight we had the pumpkin and potato soup which was bland but with croutons, salt, and pepper, it was really good! We also had bread and cheese and mandarins. It was all quite good. I enjoyed it.

After that I Skyped Thad for a while and then showed Madame my pictures from the party. We talked a lot tonight and I feel like I am getting a lot better at speaking though I am by no means perfect. I have troubles with my verb tenses still… But Madame says that is normal and I am doing really well. I think she likes having me around. Then we both were like we are tired so we went to bed but first I had to write this! Now goodnight!

Antiquity Theater to Modern Theater

I woke up at the dreadful hour of 7:30 after a weird dream in order to have breakfast and such and then be at the hotel at 8:25. I was a little late in getting out the door and had to speed walk there but then my shins were killing me. I also stalked Will half way there before hopping up beside him. I scared him. Oops!

I ended up being totally on time so I had hurried for nothing. We stood around and then got on our bus to go to St. Reimy to see the ancient civilization site of Glanum. I had studied this site in my provencal history class and knew about both the Arc and the Cenotaph. They were cool to see in person and were actually quite larger than I had thought they would be. It was cool to see them in person. We walked around and talked about them before going up the hill past one of van goghs olive tree paining locations to the actually city of Glanum. It was kind of cool to walk around in and see the old parts of really old houses. I was also super exhausted from the night before though. In fact, all day I was super tired.

 

After we visited the site and the little museum that it had we went to Arles to find lunch. They had markets today but we got there at 12:30 and they closed at one so after walking to our meeting place we kind of had to hurry to get food from the markets because they were already shutting down. I got an apple, 3 mandarin oranges and a piece of very thick crusted cheese pizza. It was pretty good pizza but my apple was kind of like grainy feeling. Sally and I walked around a bit then went to the meeting place which was a park to eat. We also girl talked for a while and then some other girls came over so we girl talked with them too. It was fun! :-)

Then we walked to the roman theater in Arles which was pretty cool. It used to be a lot bigger than it is now but it was still pretty impressive. After that we went to the arena of Arles and walked around that and up one of the medieval towers to get a view of the city. That was really pretty to see the part of the city and the rhone river. I liked it.

The. We went and walked by the place where van gogh painted the cafe in the night which was a painting I recognized so that was cool. Also St.Reimy is rumored to be the cathedral in Starry night which the mountains we were by as his background. But the cafe he painted is still there so I took a picture of it.

Then we went to the cathedral of Arles and looked at the outside of it which we had studied in class. Alternatively it was smaller in person than in the pictures that I had seen.

Then we got on the bus again and went to a museum of Antiquity stuff. It was really kind of boring as i had hit the wall. My feet hurt, I was tired, I was hungry again because the fruit hadn't kept me full for long, and I just wanted to go back home. One girl had left her wallet at a place in the village so she was kind of freaking out which I can understand. I would have been. The museum was kind of cool. They had a boat from roman times they excavated from the river that just got put on display this past week. Also some cool mosaics and sarcophagus. The stuff they had was cool but I was just so done. We finally left with a stop at the place Danielle thought she left her wallet which wasn't there and then headed home.

I listened to my iPod the whole way home because all day I had listened to these girls behind me and Sally talk about their relationships, roommates, parents, and party scene. It wouldn't have been so bad but like the more that they talked the less and less my opinion of them became. One of the girls has been in a three year relationship and she was complaining that people in the states don't buy her as many free drinks here as they do in the states. My thought was, why would you even accept free drinks from guys if you have a boyfriend... Like that isn't leading them on or anything. So then you are doing it on purpose to get free alcohol in which case I still don't like you because you should buy your own and not rely on other people to buy you stuff. Especially when you are in a relationship with bot the guy buying it for you. It made me mad. Also the way she talked about her boyfriend was like... It gave me the impression that it is really not a good relationship and she should just break up with him because she doesn't value him at all. It was just all around a really unnerving conversation to have to listen to. Sally was trying to tune them out and they asked her to turn her earphones down because they could hear them. She told them ti turn their voices down and she would. I was on the same page.

When we got home i had the house to myself so I face-booked and started blogging. I even turned on french password game show. Pretty soon Paul came up to get me and I went downstairs. I told. Madame i was thinking of going to a movie tonight with my friends because when I got home I had a facebook invite to go to dinner and the movie. I said no to dinner but said I would catch them at the movie. We had dinner and I played with Paul a bit before and then headed out.

The group was a little late there but we stood in line and got tickets and watched Gravity in 3d. Interesting movie and like it was good but like very interesting. Two actors, lots of space, no sense of direction. Interesting. I bought a small popcorn and it was like sugar popcorn but not carmel corn but like sugar. It was really good and didn't have a smell to be like regular popcorn where it always smells better than it tastes. I liked it. Also theaters here are actually built to be nice to the people who are sitting in them. They are comfy and you actually have leg room! What a concept!

After the movie I went home and went to bed!

LaSia's Birthday

Today I woke up at 10:16 took a shower, ate a kiwi, and then went to the cave. Cassandra and Sara were there and LaSia was out fetching her boyfriend from his hotel. When we got back, we met Ed and went to get lunch at crepe a gogo. I got strawberry jam. It was interesting though because the group was so indecisive so now I have just taken to starting to walk in a direction until they follow me and we figure things out along the way because if not we just end up standing somewhere for a long time! I also grabbed a slice of pizza because I knew I would get hungry again fast. We stood around and talked for a while and I got to know Ed a bit more. He works for US customs, but isn’t actually that guy who makes you open your bags and stuff. But he seems cool.

After that Cassandra and I went to head back to the school and got distracted by this kind of cool like weird shop that had these like antique cool like weird things. Then we went and walked around a home goods store. We found lots of Christmas stuff, my favorite! 

Then we went back to the school and hung out for a while and got into a conversation with Morgan and Guillaume about the school and how some of the staff don’t seem to care for students and how this Camus stuff is not really for the students. I guess they have like brought a boat load of like Camus Experts in and like are doing this big conference to commemorate his 100 years since birth but then like not actually giving students a list of events or like telling us about them so it is more to build the prestige of the school than anything else. Also they brought in like the top guys who know Camus which honestly if the school has paid for it I am a bit upset that my money is going to fund this… They just have not been doing this in a good way, or gone about it correctly. 

After that Cassandra left for Amsterdam and I hung out in the cave until I met with Lauren at 4:30. I also went on Ebay. Won an auction! Woohoo! But um yeah went and talked to her about the project and then we talked about a lot of other things. We actually talked for over an hour which was kind of cool. I was definitely not expecting that but it was kind of nice. Then she left and I went back down to the cave where I watched spencers videos until Patrick came down and mentioned he thought he saw LaSias boyfriend standing outside. So I promptly went upstairs and invited him down to the cave which was like Yay! Saving the awkwardness. Go Ed! Then we sat and talked about I don’t even know what until the play people came downstairs and had some apparently not good free food and then we went up to take our seats for the play reading of State of Siege which was kind of good but also strange. Totalitarian, plague, government kind of play. It was interesting. A bunch of my friends were in the Chorus. Good play though. David Hayes was the director who I guess is a big shot again worked at the globe theater and teaches Shakespeare at Ivy Leagues. 

Then we went and had dinner at the 24h restaurant for LaSias birthday. I learned it is carrot and sweet potato's in the vegetable cake thing.  Dan came but then left and I talked to Sally and Jonny the whole time. Sally wanted to know my story with Thad and so I told her like everything back to like beginning high school and like she thought it was so cute she literally almost started crying. It was a good trip down memory lane and she was a good listener so it was nice to tell it. It made me happy to look back on how awesome he was/is. She thinks we are cute together too from our pictures. I am inclined to agree.

Then we went to a bar for to get a drink and the first bar we went to was packed so we skipped it, the second we sat down but then they were like oh sorry we are out of tequila so we can’t make any of the cocktails we have so we left (bar with no tequila? That’s like a pizza place without tomato sauce!). The last one we went to worked and I got a strawberry mojito which I wanted to try but it had mint in it so I didn’t really like it but it was one of the better things there. Next time I’m voting for woohoo though. Then I came home cranked this out and went to bed because its 12:45 and I have to be up at 7:30. Goodnight!

P.s. Tiny ROUND cheese graters? WHAT!?

Kiwis and Tartes

This morning I woke up at ten and STILL didn’t want to wake up! I am getting enough sleep I am sure but I can’t help but just feel exhausted! Tomorrow I am going to sleep in a bit. I took a shower and used my new soap that I bought yesterday and now I smell like something normal again. My bangs have grown out again so I will have to cut them soon. Thad and I have deduced that it is because of the vitamins that I have been taking. In any case I didn’t cut them yet. I had breakfast which was very good. I decided during my lonely breakfast that Kiwi’s are really under rated in the fruit department. You only ever see them on top of fruit salads as like the nice looking garnish fruit or stuff like that. Kiwis should be in more things, and I mean really kiwis because the artificial flavor that we have all the time in like strawberry kiwi stuff is by no means the same. And really neither is artificial strawberries. They really taste nothing like their artificial flavors. I want to someday sit down and eat strawberries and kiwis together because I bet that they taste totally different! Just a little tangent… 

I went to class and when I got there the desks were all arranged weirdly and there were all these coffee cups and stuff on the tables. There was an old guy in there and he asked if I had a class there and I said yeah in a half hour. So him and I cleaned up the tables and put them back in order. The school has been doing a bunch of weird stuff lately because a bunch of people have come to the school because it is like their open house of something for schools that they are allied with so they have been taking over classrooms and the staff at IAU is particularly crabby with the students. It is also funny because they have been like making changes to the classrooms that they are using to make them nicer. They added a rug to my Lit classroom which has really needed a rug because of the terrible acoustics and also a big nice table. But it’s like I feel like they are lying by not giving the people a real look at what the university is like because it’s all gussied up for these people. But like had this guy and I not cleaned everything up no one would have… Good planning.

So we put that back together and then he left. Yamina came in and I was scared I was going to get yelled at. I decided to not move and see if she wouldn’t see me. She left and I breathed a sigh of relief. Pretty soon everyone came in and I said happy birthday to LaSia. Wait actually I don’t think I outright did. But like talked about it. Oops. I just hate saying it right after someone else says it because then the person will think you didn’t remember. Well then I didn’t remember to say it. But I had been thinking I needed to say it all morning! I fail. Oh well. We had class and this other girl we know like sat in on it for some reason but it was funny because our professor was like hey you aren’t in this class that means someone is missing! So then he double counted us to be sure we were actually all there. But I think she just wanted to sit in on it. After that we had class which was pretty boring but my professor was being extra funny today. At one point after he realized his white board was gone he was like. Once upon a time there was a blackboard here. And then we were like it’s behind the curtain and he was like there better not be any dead bodies back here. Then once he went behind he was like ahhh Yamina. I laughed a little too hard at it. But I really do find him humorous. He can be kind of a jerk at times with his humor but it is usually funny. 

After that we went to get lunch at different places. I got a crepe. We went to the new building to eat after saying bye to LaSia and saying we would meet up after classes to do something for her birthday. We went and ate and talked a bit about stuff. I seem to forget all the time what I talk about with people but it is usually good conversations I think. I feel like I laugh a lot here. Like more than I do sometimes at home. I don’t really know why that is but I think it is a thing. It must be that I’m happy or something. Imagine that!

Then we went upstairs to class and I learned that our professor in addition to this times reading put some of us into groups to do an extra assignment to present on Tuesday. It was only 8 of us that would have to do it because it was in 4 parts. I knew I was going to be one of the eight… And I was. -.-‘ So I had to read a packet and then tomorrow me and my partner who is a girl that I don’t especially like are meeting to talk about what we are going to say because I will be gone the better part of the weekend. Blech. So after class and before the others finished I went and read that which wasn’t too long but wasn’t the simplest text. Today in class I was kind of annoyed because I feel like I didn’t read the novel in the same way that the rest of the class read it and I don’t see things in the same way that they did, which I think isn’t a bad thing as good works should be able to be read in different ways and have different reactions in different readers. But no one really seemed interested in my point of view. So it was kind of annoying to sit through the class and not really be able to present my point of view…. Further reasons for why I don’t think I should be a lit major today. After that I went and read and watched YouTube videos for a bit while waiting for everyone to be done with class. 

When everyone was done we dawdled around trying to decide what we wanted to do. Finally I decided we would go to a pastry shop to get LaSIa a pastry for her birthday. It was kind of an awkward situation while I was waiting outside for LaSia and Jonny to use the bathroom. I was outside with Cassandra and Patrick. And it is like… Been a bit of a weirdness with me and Patrick because I feel like he has some very unreturned feelings. And I’ve been feeling that for about two weeks now since someone told me they thought he was into me. Since then I have been throwing out the word boyfriend a lot but it just feels like there is a bit of like weirdness. And like today it seemed like he wanted us to go to dinner just the two of us tomorrow because we did that once before because everyone else bailed on us. And like I don’t feel that way at all and I’ve talked to Thad about it and did again tonight but like he hasn’t actually outright said something to me so I feel like I don’t want to say something in case I am imagining things but like… I feel like I am not. And more than one person has like said that they think he likes me. So that is awkward. I have been hoping it would just go away but I am not sure it will. But it anything else happens I’ll give it to him straight. I just feel bad… But I am definitely in no way interested as I am QUITE happy as I am. It just feels weird. I have never liked when people like me which I guess is weird. Or like when people try and hit on me. I really hate it. Also I am a bit oblivious because I just think people are being nice unless it is like SUPER direct and obvious. So that is not good of me. But hopefully I won’t have these issues for long… But it is a point of awkwardness in my life right now. 

When they got done in the bathroom we went to a pastry shop and Cassandra and I bought LaSia a berry cobbler pie tarte thing. It looked pretty good and she said it was pretty good. We stood around for a long time talking about home and things. LaSia’s boyfriend is here visiting for her birthday so she is going to bring him tomorrow for lunch/ dinner/play probably. So that will be cool to meet him. The school had a “mandatory” talk to go to tonight that I didn’t go to because I didn’t want to miss delicious honey lemon chicken dinner. But what are they really going to do? Send me home? And no one ever takes roll at those things. It was all about Camus and I really don’t care about him honestly so I just bailed. If anyone asks I will make up an excuse but I just didn’t want to go. I will go to the Camus staged reading tomorrow though that all my friends are in. That will be good I bet. More fun than listening to someone talk about something that I pretty much don’t care/know about. 

Cassandra and I went to Monoprix where I bought a new black pen, a game for Matisse for this weekend, and some bag of rice. We smelled the perfumes and I found one I liked but I figured why buy it for 6 weeks and then have to figure out how to get it home... After that I cam home and typed up some notes for tomorrow and then Madame came home and made dinner which was DELICIOUS!!! I loved it. It was the best. We also had bread and Twix bars afterwards. But it was very good. Madame didn’t sleep well last night I guess so she went to bed pretty quick after that and then I went to my room and Skyped Thad for over an hour. It was really good to talk to someone about stuff. And it makes me realize how much I miss him… But he is going to a work gig this weekend. It was good to talk to him about this whole situation! He was quick to remind me that I am good at leading people on and giving them false signals even if I don’t mean to. (Ouch. No past feelings there…)  But it was good to talk to him.

Then he made me hang up on him to finish my blog and go to bed. But then my dad signed on so I talked to him for a bit while I finished my blog. It was good to talk to him also.

Now I am going go to sleep! Goodnight!

P.S. The cat went to the party.

Expresso Cup Tower

Today I woke up and really didn’t want to. Also I said to myself man I REALLY want to just be waking up at home… I miss walking down my hallway to go upstairs and see my parents or find mom watching the soap on a weekend or weekday. I really miss that. That’s the first time I have really missed like something so simple and not a person from home. Sad… But soon enough! 6 weeks 1 day 22 hours… Not that I’m counting. I’m very happy I am here but I do miss home.
I had breakfast and Madame and I talked a bit. Apparently she has a lot of laundry to do today because she has Robert’s (friend of Jean-Claude that I have never met) laundry in addition to ours and he had more this week than usual. Combined with my more than usual because of Paris laundry it was a lot. But I don’t think she was really complaining but more like… grumbling? But she wasn’t upset about it. She also gave me a 20 to buy internet with because she thinks the internet people are going to keep being pokey. (They were/are) SO now I can have internet unsecretly. Also on my way out the door Paul made me come see his cup tower that he made this morning from the cup game we were playing with the espresso cups last night. It was pretty cute. But almost made me late to class!

I gave her my bag of laundry and then headed to class. I went and sat in the classroom where we have class and then some other came in too as it got closer to time. Then though, Yamina the housing lady came in and yelled at us for being there because the school was I guess planning on having a meeting there. And like she wasn’t like hey we are having a meeting why are you here? She like was actually yelling at us and we were like hey wow we didn’t know we have a class in here and there isn’t a sign sooo how were we supposed to know. She pretty much in 10 seconds insulted everyone in the room by yelling at us by doing what we were supposed to. It was really stupid. And then I was like well is class cancelled or are we moved to another room? So then she went to find one that was open. She came back 2 minutes later and told us the name of a room downstairs. On the way out she asked me if I knew where that room was because she didn’t have a clue… YOUR OFFICE IS IN THIS BUILDING! And you work here! How do you NOT know classrooms!? HOW!? I honestly do not understand because there are only like 6 classrooms for the whole school and 4 in this building, so like HOW!? It was really stupid. Also this class is like one of the biggest in the university so like they took our big room and sent us literally to the smallest one there is. We were like uhhhh no way is this going to work… So we went and stole another classroom across the hall. Even then we had to take chairs from other classrooms. It was really stupid and poorly planned. Obviously.

Anyways so after our sardine classroom experience, I went with Sally down to the cave where we sat for a while before deciding to go get pasta for lunch. I got bolognaise sauce on mine. It was really good but also very filing and I get tired of Pasta so quickly. I also got a hot chocolate from the espresso machine in the cave because I saw the guy change it yesterday. I just tried to spell it expresso. Oops. It would be clever that way though because it is like express. Then we chilled down there. I watched some videos on YouTube before trying to figure out my classes for next term. I think that at the end of the year I am going to transfer. It makes sense for me to do a French major or to do a theater major. I think that I have more of a passion for theater and I really miss it… I feel like it has been like the one thing that I am really good at. And I think it is kind of a special skill and I enjoy doing it. But I don’t want to do it at WOU because I just don’t really like that professor or that crowd of people. I know theater people like to party but that isn’t really the atmosphere that I want so I feel like I could find a better crowd at somewhere like George Fox. And I have looked at going there before, because it is small and they have a fantastic heater program with a professor who has won Emmys in lighting… So I just feel like I would be a better place for me? I could look at an interdisciplinary with Theater and French or do a Theater major with French minor. I think that if I went back to a private school my Linfield credits would actually count for something again which I think would be really nice as well. I don’t know. I just feel like I really am not passionate at all about an English major. Like I enjoy to reading and enjoy finding I do like famous works if I give them a chance but I am not a real Literature major. I don’t fit that mold. And it doesn’t really excite me or feel like something I really enjoy as much as French or Theater… Maybe I have just been wasting my time the last two years in school… I don’t know. But looking at my degree worksheet I really have only taken 2 lit classes towards the major. The rest have been LACC’s or gen Ed credits filled by lit classes. So I don’t know. I don’t think it is the right path for me.

I worked out that I should take more Gen Eds to finish up that this coming term and then decide when I get home what I really want to do. The classes I picked though should transfer anywhere and keep my options open. I think it will come down to money too… That really sucks. Especially because my grades here will transfer back and bring down my GPA from its current 3.95 state which won’t be good when I go looking for scholarships… I emailed if I could switch to Pass/Fail and Western said Sure! But then the classes can’t count towards major, minor, gen Ed, or elective credits…. WHAT. So literally they would be totally unusable and pointless… Awesome. So I won’t be doing that. It sucks though that Western is dumb like that. Most of everyone else’s universities give them credit as long as they pass because they know abroad classes are harder because school isn’t the main priority… So this kind of sucks for me.

After I figured that out I talked to Sophie the other Oregon girl about Oregon and classes and stuff. She recommended I take a gap year. I said uhhhhh no. Then some other people came down to the cave and hung out and I talked with them. Later LaSia, Sara, and Jonny came down and we talked. LaSia and I decided to go to Monop to get cookies and chocolate. I also bought a new bar of Dove soap which smells awesome. I think I am going to toss my weird smelling one. I have a bit of it left but I hate it… Oh well it was like 60 centimes. It was fun to talk to her. I feel like she is pretty chill which I like because some people here are a little too much crazy for me. We talked about some stuff on our way back to school and we ran into Gina. She followed us back to the Cave and then had us all sign LaSia’s birthday card which I guess is a secret but I mean Gina wasn’t exactly on the sly side with having people sign it. Oh well :-) I’m sure she will still like it. We listened to some music and then everyone left me to go to class. Sophie came back down and we got to talking again. We eventually switched school building to go to our class. She is really nice and I can see us being friends. Also it is nice to talk about Safeway, Burgerville, and Dutch Bros and not have people look at you funny because they don’t have them where they live. The small things in life!

Class started and it was kind of strange today because we worked on individual texts of a comic book translation in class. We each have a different page and are going to make a little like book thing I guess from our translations. It’s from the Stranger by guess… Only the guy who has been shoved down our throats since we got here!!! You guessed it Albert Camus! I did pretty well on my page and my professor was like oh those are good ways of going around those weird phrases so that was good. Still hard though. But it was an interesting class to say the least. Some people were quite loud all class and in an echoey room such as the one we were in it was a bit crazy at times. But there are only 8 of us in the class so ҫa va.

I walked or have started walking home with Sophie because she lives farther than me but in the same direction. So that is nice. I came home and read a bit of this giant book. Paul came up after a bit and was like dang that book is big haw many pages we didn’t have to look because I know it is 985. I’m on 363. BLECH. Hopefully I will have time to read more this weekend. Paul and I played cards, playing Bataille which I think it the equivalent of the card game war. Both flip a card, highest card wins. I think that is the game. I haven’t played in ages though so I don’t really remember. Madame asked what other games I know and I told her I am a master at Rummy :-) Because Thad and I play all the time. And I always win no matter what he says!!! :-P

We had chicken nuggets and fries tonight instead of Soup because Paul was eating with us. So tomorrow we are having my favorite chicken and then Friday unless I go out we are having the pumpkin soup. After dinner I went and Skyped Thad!!! FINALLY!!! It has been too long and it was much needed. I showed him my Eiffel towers that I bought in Paris and we talked about his work and school and what I am going to do. After he had to leave for Burger Wednesday, I got on Facebook and talk/argued with dad about what I should do. He’s pretty supportive of everything but thinks I should get a BA and then worry more about Grad school. But to do that you have to know what you want to do… I am just going to try and stop thinking about it and just figure it out when I get home… Blech. I wrote my blog while Madame did a bunch of Ironing. She found a hole in a pocket of some jeans and asked what I thought she should do since yesterday I asked for a needle and thread to patch a hole on my gray sweater and she was shocked I knew how to sew. I told her I took 3 years of classes when I was younger so I know the basics. Also I took theater costuming which helped as well. We eventually figured it out but Madame was not super thrilled to have to stay up to iron tonight. :-/

Tomorrow is Thursday which I keep forgetting and thinking it is Friday or Wednesday. Next week I have a three day week which is AWESOME! And I am excited to go to the party this weekend. The last one was really fun so I bet this one will be too!

Monopoly: Worst Game on the Planet

This morning I woke up at 10 exactly because I actually slept all the way in without waking up at all last night. I think that is actually a first for me. I usually wake up at some point in the night. But last night I didn’t! I took a shower and ate a better breakfast than usual actually taking my time. I opened a new orange juice bottle today so that was eventful for my breakfast festivities. After that I went to school and used the internet to talk to mom a bit on Skype. Gina was there early too so we talked a while about the groups trip to Brussels. I guess it was awesome. It sounded awesome. French fries, waffles, and chocolate? Where do I sign up!?

After that we had class which was kind of boring but also interesting at the same time. We didn’t get our history midterms back which kind of sucks because I’ve been most curious about that one because I can’t really peg how I did… He said maybe Thursday but most likely on Tuesday… Meh. After that we did class and after which Cassandra went to her locker and checked the mail and got my postcard from my mom. Of the Arc du Triomphe… Where I was… my mom is a dork. Funny story though… I didn’t actually go and see the Arc. I saw it from a distance and the plan was to go see the Champs-Elysee and the arc on Saturday after the Eiffel tower before leaving Paris but then with Lunch we ran out of time. So… I did see it from a far distance. But I didn’t actually get to it. I know pretty sad but now I have something for next time!

LaSia’s birthday is this week on Thursday so we are trying to figure out what we are going to do for it. It’s a bit hard because there is like a talk that we are supposed to go to on Thursday night… I really don’t want to go. We are sort of like being told that we have to but I mean what are they really going to do… And it’s about Albert Camus which I feel like the university is trying to shove down our throats. But really I don’t really care and it isn’t really what I want to spend my time doing… I’d rather be doing other stuff. Especially because prior to coming here I had never even heard of this guy… Is he really a big deal? You tell me! Leave me a comment! Have you ever heard of him? Is he a big deal? Should I be caring? Let me know!

After that Cassandra and I went to get food and went back and ate it in the library. We went to the Vietnamese place and got chicken and rice. I am already getting tired of that place. I don’t even go there that often though so that isn’t good. After that we had lit class where we talked about brothers K. It was interesting but I almost feel like at this point there wasn’t much to talk about we just we clarifying things that had happened and summarizing the book so far but not really dwelling into any real subjects brought up in the book. Maybe it was because we were coming back to it after break or because the chunk we covered was really large. In any case I got a little bored at the end of class. After class I went and watched some of Spencers videos and was happy to hear that Eli was in some of them as well! That was fun. Also Eli’s senior jury was yesterday so I am waiting to get links to the recorded stuff he did. I also got a crepe after class but I went for the sugar instead of the nutella banana because it was cheaper and didn’t walk to the good crepe place so it was not as good. Oops my bad, but the guy was really nice who I bought it from.

Then I went back home and dropped off my stuff and decided to go see what Madame and Paul were up to. I went down and Paul was watching some strange lego lion people show. It was not the greatest show but during it their mostly outside and skiddish, doesn't like loud people cat came and sat on my lap! I pet it and it was a very nice cat and likes me I guess which is nice because I really liked it. Very sweet. Her name is Stitch-ette. Like lilo and Stitch but she is a girl. I also learned instead of like electric id chips they tattoo the ears with an id number. Strange huh?
 

When the show was finished we decided to play Monopoly. I knew right then that bad things would happen. Here’s the deal. I kind of hate the game Monopoly because every time I play it, the game lasts too long and people get impatient or everyone gets bored or it just isn’t that fun and is more a math and money game than anything else. In short, I don’t really like it… In any case I knew this wasn’t going to go too well because Paul’s attention span isn’t very high as he is seven, and he likes to cheat a lot. So the way they play (I don’t especially play monopoly so my understanding of rules at home are not great) is that when you get doubles you move and then roll again. So Paul would take like three rolls per turn saying ech didn’t count until he got doubles. Of course only when he thought I wasn’t paying attention and when Madame was occupied with something else. He bought lots of properties and then was running out of money. He started not counting correctly on the board and also going really slowly on his turns. Madame was getting kind of frustrated and I was just like yep this game sucks in my head. Everntually Madame told him to hurry up and to play like he is supposed to. He stopped really watching the game unless it was his turn so we were constantly like having to bring his attention back to the game. It just wasn’t very fun. Eventually after Madame scolded him for not playing right and for being stupid and messing around which he really was and deserved it, he decided to quit. Madame said we would keep playing without him which he didn’t like. So then they fought over that. Then he said we could play but not with the things he had incase he changed his mind and she said no you play or not. So then they got in an argument.

I kind of felt like you do when you are at a friend’s house and their parent is yelling at them about something. You feel kind of awkward and put in the middle of something that is more of a private family matter. This one I saw both sides of it. But Paul is kind of crazy. Madame kept talking to me and saying wow he is so terrible and stuff like that so I was obligated to respond but like it didn’t feel right to Paul to be like talking about him right in front of him… I think that is a cultural thing though. They also don’t do private grades in school in France they are all done publically. But Madame even said like if you were my kid I wouldn’t accept this kid of behavior. Even after we put the game away and I said it was fine to just stop and be done, Paul kept like purposefully pushing her buttons. I would have like put him in time out or something. From what I have seen, they don’t really punish him and because he is an only child he gets catered to a lot. I think that may be a reason why he is so crazy and doesn’t respond to authority.

Also we used the same Monopoly board that Madame bought for Laurence when she was little. And they play where you can’t buy hotels or houses unless you own all of that color which I think is not like normal rules. 

After all that eventually Laurence and Jean-Claude came home. We had some red wine and chips and talked about them getting internet tomorrow because the guy had to get a part or something. Sooo boo.

After some cup with a coin under it game shenanigans we came upstairs. We had an improvised but delicious dinner of sausage and lentils. Tomorrow we are having pumpkin soup which must be interesting, and then on Thursday we are having the marinated chicken that I love! I am very excited! :-D I did some homework after dinner and then wrote my blog entry while laying with a heating pad. I am really sore in my legs lately from the increase in walking lately, which is only reminding me I need to book our reservations at the spa! Oh December why are you still so far away?