A Day in Marseille

Today I was not happy to wake up after staying up later than I probably should have last night talking to Thad. But oops. I took a shower which was not very fun because the bathroom was FREEEEEZING and the water didn’t ever get very hot. So that was not fun at all! Beebo kept me company all morning while I got ready and ate breakfast and all that. He was chilling under my bed when I came out of the shower because it was warmer in my room. He was being good today though which was nice. Then I went off to the cave to start my day.THe picture below is me expressing how good people can look while eating :-)

 

I was the first one to the cave because everyone else wasn’t done with class yet. I was chilling and then suddenly everyone was there but not at the same time because everyone went to the bathroom or to their locker or to check the mail. After about ten minutes we were finally all in the same place and decided to go get dinner. We went and ate at the pizza place by the school because it is the best. LaSia and I split a pizza and it was delicious. I really like going to this pizza place because the guy who runs it is super nice and funny. It makes the whole experience better. We ate our pizzas there and then after that headed out in the direction of Sally and LaSia’s house so that they could drop some stuff off. We were all in a really good mood which was nice. I think we all are kind of realizing we don’t have much time left and that we need to make the most of it and each other.

 Jonny split off and was going to meet us at their house because he wanted to drop off his stuff too. We walked the rest of the way to their house and I was already getting a bit cold. I don’t know why but it seems infinitely colder here not because of the temperature which was according to Kristen, colder in Oregon than France today, but because of the wind here. It is not fun at all! But I decided I would try to find a coat in Marseille because things are supposed to be cheaper there. Sally and LaSia don’t live to far from me which is interesting. I would think that I would see them a lot more often but they walk a different path to school than I do. Then we waited for Jonny to get there and went off to the bus station. I used my handy dandy cartreize bus card which gave me a 24h pass for 2 euros. Win!

 We rode the bus to Marseille which took us to the Gare St. Charles which is actually the train station! SO we kind of had to meander our way through town towards the Vieux Port. We followed the car direction signs and eventually got there. We did end up taking some sketch roads though. That was a little creepy. Once we got to the port we came upon the ferris wheel and Christmas chalets that are there for Christmas. The ferris wheel was pretty but I had no desire to go on it. (Fear of Ferris Wheels). We walked around the chalets which were cute and had some nice things but then we stumbled upon a hot beignet chalet! Beignets are sort of like… Doughnuts and Fried bread mixed together? They put apples inside and the inside is doughnuty but it is fried on the outside with sugar all over it. It was deeeeelicious! But also very hot. I also got a water. Sara bought a hat at a chalet which had lots of colorful looking handmade sewn things. She got a gray hat. Of all the colors that they had she chose gray. I was disappointed in her. After that I bought a little gift for my Grandpa and then we walked towards the museum that Jonny had to go to for his class.

 

We all paid a 5 to get in and then discovered that it was actually kind of a boring museum… Or I’m not sure if it really was boring but I was not in a very museumy mood. Before we went into the museum they made us put our water bottles away in our bags. I accidentally photo bombed some guys picture of the museum. And then every time I walked through the main hallway I would make a funny face at the really bored security guard at the end of the hall. I was really hyper and was pretty silly all day. Plus that security guy was bored out of his mind.

Everyone but LaSia and Jonny got pretty bored pretty fast of the museum. At one point we sat down on a bench and noticed that in one of the 45 second long videos that was on loop there was an odd portion where this skinny lady was running out of the water in a bikini, and then she laid on the beach and all the camera shot was a view of her chest and then a really strange face. We laughed at the bizarreness of it intermixed with the rest of the 45 second flm. Then pretty soon a group of guys came up and ogled at the screen for two rotations of it making comments about the lady. It was so guyish that we had to laugh.

Then we all decided that the museum wasn’t going to get any more interesting for us so we left the exhibit to try and go to a café on top of it. It ended up being ridiculously expensive so we decided we would leave Jonny and LaSia a phone to call us when they got done. It was kind of a hassle though because we were giving it to them through the exit door which the security guys didn’t like. But oh well.Then I went outside to dump out my bag because we discovered that the plastic water bottle i bought had cracked and leaked half a bottle of water all over my bag. So that was not so good.

While I was doing that this like 30 year old dude like tried to hit on me. I really hate that. I know some people are like oh you should take that as a compliment. Yeah No. Would you take it as a compliment if some guy who is super older than you just like aproached you and you didn't know him and tried to get personal with you? No. It is just creepy and makes me feel unsafe every time. I hate it. Also I hate getting hit on because it makes me feel like an object not a person, because the only thing they know about you is what you look like. I hate it.

We left and walked down the main road until we found a tea salon that looked pretty empty. I had a tea and everyone else had hot chocolate or coffee. Sally and Sara got steak frites sandwiches. Then pretty soon LaSia called and wanted to know where we were so I told them the directions and they came and met up with us. There was only us and the guy running it in the place and he was nice. There was a movie on which was all watched and made fun of but didn’t actually bother to listen to so it was funny. My tea was really good and made me miss tea. We hung out there for a while and then decided to head out. We all were like dang now we will never know the end of this great movie. Also LaSia has decided on saying “meep” after all of my hiccup-like sounds.

From there we went on in attempting to find a big mall like store that was supposedly unmissable. In the meantime we ran into another Christmas market. This time there was a hot wine vender so I decided to buy one (mostly for something to hold while we walked around to keep my hands warm!) It did smell amazing though! We walked around and looked at the little Santons which are like miniature figurines that you can make towns and nativity scenes from that are ceramic and then had painted. They are CRAZY expensive. But I guess the idea is you buy one thing each year and then by the time you are older you have a good size town. They were a really cute idea but so expensive. A little duck was 6 euros. For a tiny ceramic duck! It was crazy. I thought about buying a nativity set because that would be cool and I don’t have one but then decided I would get one when I got back to the states. Maybe next year because I am getting back so late.

When I did drink the wine it was SOOO delicious! It didn’t feel very alcoholy maybe because it is burned off? So it was just delicious! They put extra spices in it so it is kind of like hot apple cider but not apple but grape. It was reallllllllly good. I want to learn how to make it. It reminded me a lot of that appley drink that we make at the helwigs sometimes that Grandma Dar used to make but I can never remember the name of because it is so weird, but then grape. I liked it A LOT. I got a second cup with everyone else decided to get some. We all huddled and drank it and talked about what to do next. We kept walking after a while of selfies and attempted group shots which Jonny always shied away from.

 

Then we found the mall and I found a coat that I really liked. They told me I looked better in gray than black so I went with that. It was only 65 Euros. I like it and it is big enough that I can wear another sweatshirt under it. Perfect! Also it was the only gray one and my size. WIN! Then we went to a book shop which we were kind of shooed out of after not a very long time. We walked around a Christmasy craft store which was kind of fun. Then after that we went up to another FNAC. There were tons of books there so naturally we ended up in the childrens book section because they are easy to read. I found a liz climo book which I really liked but didn’t buy. She just makes funny cute little comics. Somehow all the girls but Cassandra ended up with a sort of eye spy (word help on that from Thad) ((I could only think of hide and seek)) book where we sat on the floor and played. It was really fun and silly and cute.

Then the store was closing so we left. I bought a pair of gloves at Claires. And we found an ATM on the way out and got out a bit of money to cover the weekend/probably some if not all of the week. Then we walked back down by the port to find food/ see the Ferris wheel. But everything was so expensive we decided to find something on the way back to the bus stop. We didn’t find anything though. The cold weather though was getting to me so I had to walk pretty slow to keep up.

Cassandra noticed/ her ankle started hurting so she fell back with me while the others figured out which direction to go to get back. So we walked slow while they walked fast and eventually we got to the station. We found the bus and all went back to Aix to find some dinner. I left my new gloves on the bus because I am an idiot. I know. I literally had just bought them… I’m stupid. Don’t laugh!

When we got back to Aix we decided to go to Patacrepe which I had never been to but it is a crepe restaurant. I decided to get a burger with pancakes as the buns. It was really good and came with fries. I decided to get the meal thing with a little drink and a crepe for dessert. It was only three euros more than the meal so I was like sure why not. My burger was really good and I at the whole thing. My drink was cute because it was a meal drink so they just give you a bit which was fun. Sara who sat across from me bought a coke but couldn’t finish it so she shared with me so that was cool. We had fun at dinner though. The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty cool. They had cool lights and it reminded me a lot of an American restaurant because it was more streamline in design than most restaurants here. They also had very delicious crepes! I had a strawberry jam one. It was really good. They came with these like marshmallows as garnish which none of us ate because we all found them super gross and far too sweet. I tried just a really really really miniscule piece and it was like BLECH too much flavor for one candy. So needless to say we didn’t eat them. Then after that we decided to call it a night because some of us had to be up early to go to Avignon the next day for school. It was a really fun day in Marseille though. :-) I have great friends.

When I got home Madame wasn’t here even though it was past ten thirty. I was like hmm. Do I go to sleep because I am tired or do I wait up to say Hi. And then once I decided I would go to sleep I was thinking about whether I should lock the door or not. The bottom door was locked I knew and it wouldn’t be a problem for me to lock the door because she has a key but it was a question of is this a normal thing for me to do? Or is it like rude to lock it? And then it was like well if I leave it unlocked she might think I am being unsafe. But if I lock it how will she know if I have already come home or not? Hmmm. I was in the middle of debating that when she came home and we talked for a bit before we both went to bed. She had been downstairs watching Paul while Laurence worked late. 

Then we went to bed because I had to be up early the next day!

Beebow, il a bien détruit la sourire!

Silly Comics

I woke up and did all the normal morning stuff and then headed to class. LaSia and I laughed about the comic strips she has been making lately and then also snapchatted each other candid pictures of each other. If you don’t know what snap chat is it is like when you take a picture and then you can set it for how long you want the picture to show up for, and after that it is gone. But you can add text to it so it is a good way for us all to communicate here because it is free. It is kind of fun. So LaSia and I were messing around for a while. Class was especially boring today on both accounts so I’ll just skip over those. 

For lunch I went and bought clementines at the grocery store while everyone else got pasta. When I came back LaSia was like hey is one of those for me and I was just like Yep. And gave her one. I am so nice sometimes. Then I said I should probably eat something more substantial than this. So the pasta place had like French bread kind of pizza so I got one of those and went and ate it in the library of the new building. They have been telling us not to eat in there but there isn’t anywhere else in that building so… we all did. After classes were done, I went and hung out in the cave. Sally and I hung out for a while before she had to go to class and we both got hot chocolates. It was delicious. Sally got a second one. 

 Then we talked about going to Marseille tomorrow because Jonny has to go to the museum for his class. Sally and I want to go to the Christmas markets there instead. We also traded phone numbers which was long overdue. Then she went off to class and I hung out in the cave until LaSia was done with class. Then her and Jonny and later Cassandra came down and we decided to go to Happy hour. It was pretty cold out there and so we sat inside. Today was the first day that a new wine was out called the Beaujolais. It is a new AOC so no one has ever tried it before. So there is a day each year where you can go to any bar and they have this wine that you can try. Today was that day so I tried the new wine. I really liked it and it was kind of funny because when I came home and went downstairs Laurence and Madame wanted to know what I thought of it when I told them I tried it. I guess we are getting a bottle maybe tomorrow to try. But it was Cassandra and LaSia and Jonny and I at happy hour and we had a lot of fun. It was sad though because Cassandra had to leave, but then Sally came and joined us after her class. We had a lot of fun.

 One of the things that I am not excited about is losing my friends that I have made here… I feel really like comfortable with all of them and I have been having a lot of fun with them. It makes me sad that I won’t be able to see and hang out with them anymore once we go back home… So I’m trying to just spend as much time with them as possible to make the most of it. Like how we are going to Marseille tomorrow.

 When I came back home and went downstairs Paul sat on my lap and played on my iPod while I talked to Laurence and Madame. It was really nice… I wouldn’t have minded having a younger sibling. Or maybe I just want to be a mom or something. But it was kind of nice. Then we came back upstairs and had dinner of sausage and lentils, bread and cheese, waffles and cereal cookies. It was very delicious. After that I tried to make MAdames laptop work with the new keyboard. And I got that to work but I couldn’t get the internet to work even though it showed it was there. So I gave up after a while. I think there was some sort of way I had to tell the computer to use the usb to do the internet or something but I couldn’t figure out how. It would connect to the network for 5 seconds and then disconnect. I dunno. Plus it was all in French. (which isn’t really a good excuse because I could understand it all). But I tried and gave it my best effort. Madame was really tired so she fell asleep really early today. I was too so we went to bed early and then I listened to Christmas music and wrote my blog and watched a bit of Netflix. I had a really fun day I am just out of energy to write. So goodnight!

Blessed

Today for my history class we were supposed to do a visit to one of the cathedrals in town and were supposed to meet there at 9:15. So I had a little bit of extra time today so I slept in a little bit longer than usual for Wednesdays. Madame had breakfast on the table. I gave her my laundry before breakfast because she had to get Paul to school this morning because Laurence had a dentist appointment. So that was a bit different than most Wednesdays. So I got ready and got my stuff packed and left to go to the church. I ran into Jean-Claude leaving as I left so we talked a bit before I went to the church. On my way there I contemplated Christmas music and how I need to put some on my iPod because as I was watching TV at breakfast the first commercial with a Christmas song came on.  

When I got to the church there was Patrick and Mary already there. I was five minutes early. Then Sally came and we had all read the syllabus to be there. It got to be 9:15 and no one else had showed up though. So we decided maybe wait five more minutes and then go back to the classroom and see if they were there. Needless to say no one else showed up and when we went back to the classroom everyone was there. I made a point of saying when we came in that “Oh I guess we aren’t at the church today” because that is what the syllabus said and he never told us anything different. He was like oh were you at the church and we were like yeah that’s where we thought we were supposed to be. His bad. Everyone who had NOT looked at the syllabus was right because they weren’t being prepared while those who had looked like they weren’t. -.-‘ But oh well. We got to miss 35 minutes of class Scott free. I guess that is maybe good but also not because his class is hard so I like to be sure and get good notes. So that was kind of sucky.

 Then after class I walked with Patrick to the bakery so I could get a baguette and then to get clementines. When we got t the cave I cooked the left overs of my pasta and ate the half cup I couldn’t finish yesterday. Then we ate in the cave and I Facebooked and added pictures to my blog. I watched listened to some Netflix while I worked on my translation homeworks. I make that plural because I had some extra work to do than normal as I had to fill in some comic book pages with my translations. That took a little while because I had to do it in pencil and then in pen. Pretty soon after that Sally and LaSia came down and went to get lunch. When they got back Jonny came down too. They were happy because the sandwich guy had given them a little sample of mulled (hot) wine for free because it was pretty cold today. They said it was really good. I am kind of intrigued with the idea so I kind of want to try it so I will have to do that one of these days. We talked about our snapchats which we have all started to get into (khelwig11). I also bought a soda from the machine and was AGAIN the last one of its kind. I am so lucky. (In more ways than this)

After that we talked and LaSia read my blog and I added pictures to my blogs. Then Sally and Jonny had class so they left and LaSia came over and watched Netflix with me. It was kind of fun. :-) There were some girls down in the cave cutting hair and being kind of strange. But we just kind of laughed and then kept to ourselves. I had a good time watching my show with LaSia because it felt just like kind of normal and it was kind of nice to have someone else’s thoughts on it and someone to bounce things off of. It was social I guess which was nice. We decided I should not read the book and just cliff notes it and then if I don’t understand something read sections of the book. But when I think of how much money I spent to come here. I don’t want to be wasting it alone reading a book which I would happily do at home. I feel like my time is more useful if spent doing other things… like being social with my friends or at home with the family. I think that is more important right now. And I know I am here for school too but I am not supposed to be the best student right now. I am supposed to be here for the experience of being here. That’s my decision and that is what I am going to stick to and I am not going to second guess this decision or feel guilty about it. The end.

Then sadly LaSia had to leave too and I finished up my homework and then set off in search of a pair of scissors and some tape. I found scissors with the secretary at the newer building and then found tape with the housing lady. So that was good. Then I went to translations and there were only 5 of us in the class and then about half way through one of the guys who had been sick all week left so it was just 4 of us. It was quiet but not bad at all. I talked about how I was trying to figure out the baking conversions for cookies and my prof said she had just gotten an email about that so she would email it to me! She did and said that she hoped to get to try them :-) She is really nice and I like her a lot I just wish I was doing a bit better in her class in terms of grade. But class was pretty relaxing and it was nice to be able to ask lots of questions. The whole structure of this class is kind of relaxing and having it as an evening class I find it really nice. 

Then when I came home I put my stuff upstairs and then went downstairs to hang with the fam. Paul and Madame were just finishing up homework. Then Paul took a shower and I sat and watched TV on the couch. Their cat Stitch is really skittish but last time I was there I got her to sit on me while I pet her. She must have remembered because today when I came in she came and jumped on me immediately. Which is funny because not ten minutes ago I scared her because she was in the entry way when I came home and she was scared of me? So who knows. But she is a very sweet cat. Then Paul finished his shower and we played dominos a bit before he got bored and his parents came home. We stayed for probably twenty minutes before going back downstairs. Paul followed us and he brought a, Où est Charlie book which is Where’s Waldo. I sat at the table and he sat on my lap and we played though he had a bit of a head start because he already knew all the spots.  But it was still fun. Then Paul left and we had dinner. We had scalloped turkey and green beans. When I went to pour the water the two cups were stacked and kind of stuff  and when I got them unstuck I dropped one two inches and it fell and broke… It was one of the cute ones with the animals (this time skunks) on it… I felt pretty bad but Madame said it was okay. Then she gave me the panda one and said don’t break this one or I will be mad. I feel bad though because I know it is just a glass but you can’t find those ones anymore she said. So that is sad… But really I am shocked the thing broke because literally it was a two inch fall. I was sitting down at the table over the table doing this… Oh well… Dinner was really good though. For dessert we had roses de something. They were frosted flakes with chocolate on them. They were like cookies and were really good. I ate four… They were super good though. Plus I love chocolate and I love frosted flakes. Beebow got sick all over the apartment so we were glad we had tile floors. Also I can’t do cat puke. Nope. 

After that I got out Madame’s computer to try and make this usb internet finder work on her computer. Then Thad got on so I Skyped him for a bit before his lunch. He has a cold :-( but his PS4 is working again so that is good for him! Then once we were done I came back out and got the internet thing working but then we couldn’t put in the wifi password because the keyboard is not working. Which we knew but had both forgotten. So now she is going to look and see if she can find a usb keyboard. So oops. But I tried and got it at least started. 

We watched Criminal Minds and also the news a bit and then laughed at Beebow being funny. He let me scratch under his neck today. And then when Madame gave me another blanket for my bed he crawled up underneath it again :-) I think he likes me now maybe. So then we laughed and played peek-a-boo with him behind the door. He is really funny because he gets so confused if you don’t pop back out right away. Madame and I laughed a lot before really saying goodnight and going to bed. I enjoy our night time laughs and yawns. It is a part of each night, and it is fun. It feels familiar. 

Then I listened to Contemporary Christian Holiday Pandora and wrote my blog. I realized during it that I am really blessed with all I have in my life. I have fantastic friends here. And it is rare that I feel this accepted so quickly by a group of people and feel so comfortable among friend like this. And I just have to say I am blessed to have such great friends here even if they don’t like my idea to go caroling at each of our hosts’ houses. I am also really blessed to be here and also blessed to have such a great support system back home. I am glad that I always have people looking out for me and reading my blogs to see what is going on with me while I am here. It would be easy to just wait until I get home and am more available but I am glad that I have people who love me enough to stay in touch or stay in the loop :-)

Also special Thanks to Spencer for registering me for classes as I didn’t have to wake up at 3am my time to do it. You are the best!

Allez Les Bleus!

Today I woke up and watched a bit of Netflix while I got ready for my day. Obviously I didn’t watch it in the shower though. That would have been bad…. But I watched that and then put my history paper on my jump drive. I need to buy some bread or else I am never going to finish this peanut butter, but I keep forgetting to go buy some. But I had it with my roll this morning. Then I went to school where I was a little later than my usual half hour early, so all mes amies were there already. I ran up and printed out my paper and then came back down and we talked before class. We talked a bit about Dachau and our plans to go to Marseille on Friday for the day.

Then class started like 10 minutes late because so many people were trying to print their papers. Also some people skipped. I know this because after class I saw them hanging out in the library in the other building not doing anything… Smooth. Funny how the people who complain about how the class is hard and they are graded unfairly when they are always on Facebook and skipping class… Hm. Interesting. I bet there isn’t a correlation there at all. We talked about Russia today and after making the realization that I am one month from leaving I was a bit distracted. But luckily I record all of the lectures so that is good. 

After that I went and got pasta for lunch and ate half of it and saved the other half for tomorrow. Then I went to class for Literature. I am kind of feeling like I am at a cross roads with this class. I am not even half way through this too big of book. I think it is kind of stupid that our professor chose this particular book that is 980 pages long to have us read in 8 weeks of study abroad. I think that he is expecting too much to be honest. It takes me about an hour to get through about 35 pages. And I have to read 80 pages for each class twice a week. And to be completely honest, I feel like it isn’t worth my time. And I don’t mean that the book isn’t worth reading at some point. But I really have to read it NOW?! When I am in France and I have to do that for two hours every two days instead of spending time with my host family or experiencing anything else about being abroad? That is really what I am going to do? Read this stupid book? I mean I have an A in the class and am so tempted to just either skim or spark notes it. I just am like so done with it and it is already hard enough to be motivated but then the book is pretty stale and too long. Thad brought up the point later when we skyped that he has never had a prof give him a thousand page book to be read in half a semester or a thousand page book at all. I was like oh. Me neither actually. 

I dunno. I mean I participate more than other students already and I think I would be fine. Our final will be on it but honestly I get more out of the discussions than the book every time. But it is going to come down to either read it and be miserable and whine about it all the time, or don’t and feel guilty about not even though I have pretty good justification. So I’m not sure what I am going to do… But I better decide fast because I have to read 80 pages by Thursday which leaves tomorrow to do it… Great… Opinions welcome.

So after Lit which was relatively uneventful I went with Sally to get her food and we talked and then we tried to go get me a cookie because I was feeling pretty bummed but they were out. :-( Great that really cheered me up. So then I walked across the street and got an opera cake which was like a coffee chocolate delicious thing. But it was still not a cookie. I stayed with Sally for a bit and then went home. Madame was there and we learned that Jean-Claude had invited some of his guy friends over to watch the France-Ukraine soccer match, so Laurence and Paul were going to eat with us. So then pretty soon Paul came up from school and played on my iPod. He took the case off and found my “You will travel to another country” fortune from a fortune cookie. So then I explained what it was and I guess they have never heard of fortune cookies. So I explained them. Then Paul caught me ogling at cookie dough on the internet and was like what is that? So then I explained it was cookie dough and I said I missed it because cookies here are always hard. So then Madame was like why don’t we make some! And I was like what, okay! So I found a recipe online but then was like wait this is all US measurements. So then I had to take all the cups and teaspoons and convert them to grams which was NOT easy! Liquids and powders are different and I think overall it will just be a let’s try this attempt! So that will be a fun thing to do this weekend. Lol I bet it will be a catastrophe but we will see! The butter will be hard because they don’t do butter the same way here with sticks that size so it will be harder to ballpark. But we will try!

One of the guys downstairs which I guess Madame knows came up to say hi and his dog came charging in which was a big deal because Beebow has never seen a dog so he freaked and ran and Madame got mad the dog was there so they kicked him out. But then I met the guy who then left. Madame told me about how she has a big glass table in the garage that matches all her stuff but she can’t figure out a way to get it in the house. I helped her with ideas and then asked why she moved to Aix. She said she had been living with a FIANCE. But then she moved to Aix in 2006 and then about 4 years ago moved into this apartment. Then Laurence came up and we sat down for dinner. We had some wine and then we had chicken nuggets and fries and Laurence and Madame had cordon bleu and fries. So then we ate that and Paul was Paul and didn’t want to eat. Then he went downstairs, and we talked. I told them a bit about my family and my pets and where I live. I found out that Laurence was living in our apartment and then once the bottom one opened up they got that one and Madame moved in here. But tonight was the first night that Laurence has been upstairs since Madame first moved in. Not for any reason other than that usually Madame goes downstairs. It was interesting.

Laurence started trying to pet Beebow but he was not having it because he doesn’t know her. And even though he snaps at me still sometimes he and I have come a long ways. 

Then Laurence went back downstairs and we watched the game. France won!!! Woo hoo!!!! That means now they are in Le Mondial and will go against Brazil next. So that is exciting we all thought they were going to lose. So we watched that and then I talked to Thad a bit but he had to run. He was upset because he fell walking to class and because of it his laptop screen broke :-( so that is pas bien. But it was at least good to get his take on things.

I have been a bit sad today but hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Waffles

This morning I had my history test so I woke up early to study a bit more. This wasn’t hard to do though because all night I was having dreams about waking up and my alarm not having gone off or that the clock was broken or it was set to pm for some reason instead of am. It was also hard to sleep because my right ear has been bothering me again since I got off the plane. So I think there is just something about planes now that make me have ear problems. But that is the side that I normally fall asleep on so it was not fun to try and sleep. It was kind of a rough night. 

When I did wake up (15 minutes before my alarm which was already set for a bit earlier than normal) I had my daily breakfast roll but was too antsy to want to be eating anything, so I slipped a banana in my bag for after the test. I studied and then went to the classroom and studied some more. I texted Thad a little bit and then the test started. We had studied 20 images of which three would be on the test. I had expected one, half expected another, and then did not expect at all the third. Luckily though, I had done some research on all of them. I came out of the test feeling pretty good about it though not fantastic. Probably solid A at lowest B work I suspect. 

I went and bought a baguette and 4 Clementine for lunch. When I got back to the cave I decided that I wished I had cheese to go with my bread so I waited to eat it until I had the energy and drive to go back out into the world. I tried to buy a hot chocolate from the machine in the cave but the stupid thing was out of powder again so all I got was water :-( so that was a major disappointment. After that I waited until Sally came down from the test. She said she owed me a cookie because I had sent her my study guides to help her study since she is apparently not doing so hot in the class. Once she got hungry and I had almost finished up my paper, we went to get her lunch and I went and bought some cheese. 

We came back and ate and I bit my cheek for like the millionth time in the past month. I just have been doing it so much lately and I have no idea why. But because I do it so frequently it is getting easier to start bleeding and today it was kind of bad how much blood. Plus after that happens you are done with eating and are like well all I taste now is the rusty taste of blood. So that was the end of that. Then I finished my paper and did my translation homework. Sophie came down and told me about how to get Netflix on your computer by making it think you are in the States and so now that works! Woo hoo! To celebrate I watched Safe Haven which is based on the book by Nicholas Sparks. It was really good I thought but also really sad at times. But it was interesting and not totally predictable, though of course largely predictable. I cried a bit though. I am a sap.

After that it got to be time for Translation class which went on without much of a hitch. I have some homework for it as usual but nothing too terrible. The only terrible thing was when I got home and was let in by Jean-Claude and Laurence I got upstairs and realized that I had left my keys somewhere! I remembered having them in the cave so as they were not in my bag I assumed they were there. I left my bag by the door and attempted to leave to go get them but the door had been relocked. You can’t get out unless you have a key so I had to go confess to Madame that I had left them and then borrow her keys. She wasn’t too happy. One of the main things they teach you as soon as you get here is DO NOT lose the keys. You have to get them from the government and they take forever to make and get to you. Also they are really expensive. It isn’t like the states where you just take it and have them make a copy. I ran back to the school and got there right before the guy was closing and he had my keys and gave them to me. On the way back home I was like dang now I might get yelled at for almost losing them. So I devised a plan to be harsh on myself so that they wouldn’t be harsher. I came back and was like I am so stupid I can’t believe I did that, to which they said oh it happens it isn’t a big deal. Win.  We had wine and chips and Paul showed me his new Pokémon cards and his new box for them. Then he showed me his little finger skateboard. One the way out I stopped to look at a DVD and they let me borrow it to watch it. Then Paul came up and wanted to watch it but it was too late so we decided he will eat dinner with us tomorrow and we will watch it. 

Then we had delicious soup again and then waffles for dessert. Beebow ate the waffle! WHAT! Cats don’t like waffles! Speaking of Waffles, after that I talked to Thad for a little bit before he had to go eat lunch. Then I facebooked for a little bit before going to my room to watch Netflix and write my blog and sit with a heating pad on my ear. Hopefully I will be able to sleep better!

Coming Home from Germany

Today Cassandra woke me up at 6:45 so we could be gone by 7 to catch the train to the airport. We missed the first one though. So that was not so good. So we waited twenty and then took the next one. We transferred pretty easily and then just sat on the train the hour ride to the airport. We got there about 8:30. We got ourselves some starbucks, which I got a vanilla frappaccino instead of a mocha one because she made the wrong one. They are pretty close though? Chocolate and Vanilla? Practically the same. I also got a blueberry muffin. It was super good. Then we went and got through security very quickly because Europe is awesome, and then went and sat at our gate and waited to board. We chilled there for a while and then she ran off to find more food and then they announced our boarding but luckily she came just in time. We got on the bus that took us to the plane and then got on. She had the window this time because I had it last time. We flew over some mountains which were maybe the Alps which were SO gorgeous!!! Then we got to Marseille and got on the shuttle bus back home. 

Once home I talked to Madame and gave her a little wooden ornament that I had bought for her. She really liked it and hung it up on the bookshelf in the living room. We talked about Munich and she ironed. I worked on my history paper which is due Tuesday but I know that after my test tomorrow morning I will not want to work on it. I am almost done with it now. I have 3 ½ of my 4 pages. I just need to write my Intro which I always write last. I had broaching a subject really vaguely. So I start right in the thick of things. I can do that tomorrow. But I Skyped Mom while Madame did ironing and then Paul came up and hung out for a while. Then it got time for dinner and we were having a very delicious vegetable soup! It had been cooking for the past 3 hours and had been smelling delicious since I got home. My stomach was growling because I was so focused on getting home that I forgot to get lunch. Oh well. Then Paul left and my parents hung up and we had dinner. Afterwards I tried to write my blog really fast so I could study for my History test tomorrow and then maybe get to talk to Thad. :-)

Sorry it is so fast and compact but I got stuff to do! Once these next two days are done I believe it will be smooth sailing until finals. But really I came home today and you didn’t miss much but me writing my paper. Bye!

Also for the first time in 4 years I am seeing the Sound of Music and am enjoying it. In french. I watched the play over 20 times in high school when I worked on it. Now I am kind of liking it. Maybe the language change was key.