Starting week 3...

First, some bad news: my little 11-year old host brother is being bullied at school. It makes me so sad for him because he is so sweet, cute, and smart. Sandra, my host mom, thinks it's because he's very small compared to other kids his size and more on the intellectual side. Apparently, Amoury has been teased at school in the past, and I feel horrible for the whole family (especially Sandra) because I can see how much pain it causes them. Sandra called some of the kids' mothers tonight, so hopefully that will help...

Otherwise, things here have been going pretty smoothly. This morning, I left the apartment at 8.30 to go to my "inscription pedagogique" at the Sorbonne for French literature classes. I didn't want to take a French lit class (I've taken so many that I was in need of a break from them), but it seems to be the only thing that will work with my schedule. Alas, I'll be taking a course called "Le mentir vrai"...we'll find out soon what that is supposed to mean. Surprisingly enough, registering for the course only took me 30 minutes, and I managed to therefore only miss 30 minutes of my European Union class that started at 9.30.

Today, I went to the Musée Rodin with Laura and strolled around beautiful gardens while checking out sculptures. It was glorious. We were both pretty tired, so we spent some time laying on the lounge chairs that had been so generously provided for public use. It was heavenly.

Speaking of Laura--she might be moving in with my host family! She is having some problems with her living situation (AKA her host mom be crazy), so she is thinking about moving. She's probably coming tomorrow or Thursday to visit with my host parents and see if it would be a good fit for her. It would be really cool (and convenient for going-out purposes) if we lived in the same apartment!

On Sunday, I ventured to Centre Georges Pompidou to check out some modern art. It was very different and slightly disturbing. There were lots of works that I didn't quite understand--paint splatterings on canvas, random words on white background, a chicken in a bathtub, a video of a fat naked woman rolling on the floor, a painting that was literally completely black aside from a white line down the middle, etc. Some of the works were a lot more interesting and really managed to affect my mood and the way I was feeling, often for the worse. Still, I thought it was really cool that a painting or other piece of art could have that effect on me. I left feeling like one of the main goals of modern art was to be unsettling/perturbing.

In other news, I have been watching a good amount of American TV shows. There's something so comforting about them, and allowing myself to just hear English for an hour or two feels like a guilty pleasure. I've been watching How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Glee (LOVE IT) and House....and yesterday I watched the first 2 episodes of Gossip Girl. I think it's really funny because I never watch much TV when I'm at home (last year all I watched was the Office), but here there is so much more of a sense of comfort and relaxation. Also, it gives me something to do before going to bed. :)

That's about it for now. Here's a picture of me and Heather enjoying wine out of baby bottles at a fondue restaurant on Saturday night:

Oh and my aunt and grandma are coming to visit me this weekend, so I'm really excited! Although I don't know Paris all that well yet, I'm looking forward to showing them around. Even more than that though, it will be nice just to see them and hang out with them. :) Can't wait!

I've been in France for one month...

So. Today marks exactly 4 weeks that I've been in France. 2 weeks in Tours, and 2 weeks in Paris. It's crazy to think that I have less than 3 months left, and I just started classes!

Speaking of classes, I'm taking two courses through SBC (my study abroad program) that will only have other SBC students in them (AKA no French students). These two classes are:

L'Union Européenne: I decided to take this because I'm embarrassed by how little I know about the EU. Also, the teacher is really nice and energetic, so I think it will be a good class. It seems like there will be a fair amount of work in it, which is okay but not awesome. During our first class (it's 2.5 hours long), one of the things we did was name all the 27 countries of the EU. Apparently Norway is not in the EU, which was a surprise to me...

L'Histoire de l'Art: I've never taken an Art History class, but when I heard that this course goes to the Louvre once a week to look at paintings, I knew this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. The course covers the 16th and 17th centuries, so during the first class (1.5 hours), the professor talked about art and life during the Middle Ages. After that, I had one hour to go to the bank, get lunch, and get myself to the Louvre to meet with my visitation group (the class is 18 people, so we broke into two groups for the visits). During the visit, we sat down in a circle in front of a painting and talked about it for an hour. It was unreal. There we were, sitting on the floor of the LOUVRE. It was insane. I was sick and sneezing all over the place, but it was still incredible. I can't wait for next week...

I'm also taking two courses at Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), but they aren't scheduled to start until October 12. Luckily I have a lot of time, because course selection is a pain in the ass. I've selected about 7 different courses by now, but there always seems to be a problem: schedule overlap with SBC classes, bad professor, too advanced of a class, class canceled, etc. Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm taking "Introduction aux sciences de langage" (Basically Intro Linguistics), and as for the other course, I guess I will have to wait and see...There was a class called "Communication et Sciences Humaines" that seemed interesting, but I think that overlaps with one of my SBC classes. Really, it's a huge pain, and I'm glad I only have to take 2 classes at Paris III.

Aside from classes, this week has been relatively uneventful. I was pretty stuffy and sniffly for the past 2 days, so I spent a lot of time sleeping, sneezing, and trying to recover quickly. Thankfully, it feels like the worst part of that random cold is over, and I can start running around Paris again without feeling like my head is going to explode.

I just had my first dinner with the host parents without my (former) roommate. She left this evening, leaving behind a very upset and very confused Sandra. I feel so comfortable here, that I really don't understand why Delaney was so set on leaving. She decided right off the bat that she wanted to move, so maybe she just didn't want to change her mind? I don't know. I would be surprised to find out that she wasn't sad at all about leaving...When Sandra asked her why she was leaving, all she said was "I didn't want to live with small children." That's a reason, but it doesn't make much sense...especially considering we barely even see the kids. Our rooms are on the opposite side of the apartment, and I barely even hear the kids when I'm here (aside from Godfroy, who occasionally cries in the mornings). I just feel so bad for Sandra, who now thinks that she did something wrong to make Delaney want to leave. Hopefully she'll feel better soon. Maybe now that she is gone I'll have an opportunity to form a closer relationship with the family. We'll see.

On Tuesday, I went with Laura to see Versailles. It was one of those "must do" things that we both had wanted to do for quite some time. I was happy to get in for FREE (European citizens under 26 get free admission to tons of places in France....it's awesome). The chateau was impressive; everything was caked in gold and every room had at least 5 paintings/sculptures of le Roi Soleil, Louis XIV. I'm glad that I can now say that I've seen Versailles, although it was maybe a bit over the top for my taste. The gardens, on the other hand, were nothing short of spectacular. They were enormous and consisted of multiple mazes and perfectly geometric flower patterns and fountains and everything. Just beautiful.

Today, I decided to take the metro to Parc des Buttes Chaumont, a large park with trails and rolling hills. It was the first time I set out by myself to discover a place, and it felt really nice. I listened to my iPod and wrote in my journal while sitting on a park bench. I felt a little poetic and an equal amount pretentious. Either way, it was nice, and I think I'll return to that park, maybe to have a picnic or go running or something.

Today at dinner, my host mom brought up the idea of Nathan coming to visit. She kept saying how "génial" and "romantique" it would be for me and how "facile" it would be for him since he wouldn't have to find a hotel. In my mind I had already ruled out the possibility of him coming due to the fact that there really aren't any vacations during the semester (aside from Thanksgiving, and that's when the family is coming). But Sandra didn't seem to think this was a problem...she kept saying that girls they've hosted in the past have just had their boyfriends come during weeks when school was slow, there weren't any exams, etc.....so now of course, she has planted in my mind a little bit of hope of him maybe possibly being able to come, which in turn of course has me looking at flights, thinking about his schedule, etc. And I had so courageously accepted the fact that he absolutely cannot come visit!

Well, I think that's all for right now...plans for tomorrow:

Tour of Montmartre at 13h

Hopefully planning trips with Laura for the upcoming months (places I have in mind...Belgium, London, Italy)

Paris tourism

So, for the past few days, I've been very touristy. Aside from yesterday, during which I slept and attempted to watch American TV shows online (which is very hard to do from abroad, as it turns out.)

On Saturday, I went to the Louvre. I waited in line. I descended into the pyramid. I was confused, not knowing how to actually enter the museum. I found one of the 4 (?) entrances. I entered. I was overwhelmed. I found the Mona Lisa. I found 93981 people taking pictures of the Mona Lisa. I still do not understand what is so great about that painting, even after seeing it. Maybe I will after my Art History class. In any event, I saw many paintings and statues that I found much more beautiful and complex while I was there. I spent over 2 hours there, but only saw maybe a fifth of the entire museum. It is incredibly large. Unbelievably large, almost.

One of my favorites of the statues I saw:

Today I visited the Orangerie, which was much more manageable in terms of size and the amount of art present. They had wall-sized Monets there that were absolutely beautiful and peaceful and breathtaking. I might go back there just to sit and stare at them some day.

I also visited the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Both places were jam-packed full of people. We wanted to climb up the Eiffel Tower, but there were seriously so many people waiting in line to buy tickets, that it would have taken us hours before we could have even started the climb. So we decided to do that on another day. Notre Dame was beautiful, with its huge stained glass windows and pretty ceilings. However, that too was a bit tainted by the sheer volume of tourists taking pictures in every corner of the place (and outside of it). I still like doing all the touristy things, though.

Tomorrow: My first class and then off to visit Versailles!

The best a birthday away from home could be...

That's what yesterday was!

I was a little worried the day before my birthday, thinking I would probably just miss home all day. But the day actually went super well. I had a great, great 20th birthday.

I slept in late, took a shower, and didn't feel a day older.

After going shopping (I just realized I talked about this in yesterday's post), it was time for dinner. We had galettes, which are basically grilled crepes. They were delicieux! I had made plans to meet some people at the Bastille at 10 pm, and I was going to meet Heather at 9.40 PM at the metro stop to head over there. Well, after dinner, Sandra (my host mom) started acting a little weird, so I knew something was up. She told me I should probably skip dessert and go get ready...suspicious. I was all ready to leave at 9.30, when Sandra tells me there's someone at the door for me. It was Heather, who proceeds to say "surprise!" So now I'm thinking, WHAT is going on? Maybe they tried to plan a surprise party for me but the only person they could get in contact with was Heather? We stood around awkwardly for about 5 minutes, me not knowing at all what was going on, when about 6 or 7 more people come up the stairs. My host family planned a surprise party for me! I was so touched and genuinely surprised: my host mom had set us a little dessert party, gotten me presents, and planned to leave the apartment completely to me and my friends. It was so nice and so unexpected, that I just didn't know what to say other than merci, merci, merci.

The problem, however, was that some people didn't know about the surprise party, and thus were waiting at the Bastille to meet up with me and the 7 people in our apartment. I tried my best to explain this to my host mom, but I felt really bad about leaving since they had intended for us to stay there the night. I think, though, that most people really wanted to go out, and there was a good amount of people waiting at the Bastille for us when we got there at 11 pm (an hour late). But even though we were late, they weren't upset at all and just kept saying happy birthday to me and being really nice. SBC people (at least the ones I've gotten to know a bit better) are incredibly nice and fun to hang out with. I really can't believe it (because of the fact that it usually takes me a while to form close relationships), but after 3 short weeks I already feel incredibly attached to these people.

There was a group of about 15 to start out with, and we went to a bar that had happy hour until 11.30 (AKA cheaper drinks). After that, a few people went home since they wanted to catch the last metro at 12.30. A smaller group then went to a few other bars, and it was just a really chill night. We also went to one club and danced a little, but it was nothing too special. However, our goal was to stay out until 5.30 AM when the metro reopens, so we set out to find another place to hang out. We ended up walking around a bit and then settling on a nearly empty and quite expensive cafe. By this time (almost 3 am) we were all needing coffee: Amelia and I shared a coffee flavored milkshake (7 euro, eww), but it didn't seem to do the trick. Around 4 am, the remaining 5 of us threw in the towel and decided to take cabs home. Tara stayed over with me, and since Heather and I live so close, all 3 of us split the 10 euro cab fare. I think it was a good choice, since we all had to be on a sight-seeing boat at 2 pm the next day. Overall, it was a really fun night, regardless of the blisters from my shoes and the failure to find a place that was entertaining at 3 AM (HIMYM quote: Nothing good happens after 3 AM). But I love SBC people and my host family and my 20th birthday!

Loving it!

Quick update because I don't have a whole lot of time:

I'm loving every minute of Paris. I've been sleeping late and then meeting up with friends around noon or 1 pm to explore different areas. So far I've been to Montmartre, the Bastille, the Latin Quarter, Opera area, and the Marais. I've also walked a lot along the Seine, experienced a wide range of temperatures (12-25 degrees C), and gotten a feel for many of the major streets of Paris.

I have yet to go into a museum, but I will definitely do that soon. It's nice to know that there will be plenty of time to visit different museums and things, so I don't need to cram everything in to the first week. I haven't even been to the Tour Eiffel yet! I have been something of a bad tourist. The only "touristy" areas I've been to are Sacre Coeur, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and some gardens. So I have some catching up to do. There are just so many museums and sights, it's hard to know where to start.

Today, Tara and I decided to explore some Parisian "hidden gems" AKA vintage clothing stores selling high-name brands at low prices (of course the clothing is already used). This experience proved to be a bit too intense/eclectic for us, and even the Dior or D & G items we saw just looked weird to us...haha. We didn't end up buying anything from these vintage boutiques, but it was cool to see what they looked like. At one store, they also had probably a few hundred pairs of Levi's, Wranglers, and Lees on sale, which we just thought was funny. They also had a lot of retro Adidas/Nike sneakers, which I actually really like and had to hold myself back from buying.

After that, we went to St. Placide, which is a more "normal" shopping area. Many of the stores were too expensive for us, but I did manage to find a few birthday presents for myself (thanks grandma!): a gray bag and a matching pair of ballet flats. :) My first French purchases! (well, aside from a scarf) Needless to say, I was very happy and felt quite Parisian on the metro with my Naf-Naf bag. Haha.

Yesterday, I walked down the Champs-Elysees, saw the Arc de Triomphe (though I didn't go to the top yet), ate at a French McDonald's (so so so much better than in the US)....and saw Julie & Julia which was just adorable and the perfect thing to see in a theater on the Champs-Elysees. I loved the movie...especially the parts in which Meryl Streep tried to speak French! Meryl Streep is amazing, but she can't speak French! And it made me feel really good about my French-speaking abilities. :)

Anyway, so I'm having a great time and am planning to go out tonight with a group of friends to celebrate my 20th. I hope everyone at home is doing well. Love!

Finally in Paris!

So I am now finally in the place where I will spend the next 3 months living, studying, learning, walking, watching, speaking French, etc. It is crazy to be here and see what Paris is really like after having heard so much about it throughout the years. I'll get to that a little later on though...first I want to talk about my last week in Tours.

There's a lot that I've already forgotten, which makes me upset...I really just couldn't find the time/energy to update. Turns out you need a bit of motivation to keep a blog going! But I did have a very nice last week. Classes were extremely boring, but it did give me the opportunity to see SBC people every day and meet some new ones.

I also participated in a cooking class in which we made Tarte Tatin, which is kind of like apple pie. It was really good, although I don't think I could make one if someone asked me to....oh well. It was more about the experience of being invited into a French home and engaging in conversation with a lovely and helpful French woman. It did bother me a little bit that the girl sitting next to me was petting the cat on her lap the entire time, and the breeze caused all the pieces of fur that the cat was shedding to fly directly into my face/lap/plate...it was kind of gross. I can deal with cats being near me, just preferably not their fur all up on me.

On Wednesday night, I went out to the Loire and met a group of SBC people there. It was really nice just sitting there in a circle, passing around wine bottles that we had purchased for 3-5 euro/each, and talking about France and our host families and other random things. I also spent a lot of time talking to Heather, a super nice girl who also has a boyfriend at home....so we spent a good amount of time swapping I-miss-my-boyfriend anecdotes. It's nice that other people on the program are in the same situation as I am. We then ran into a small group of French guys, ranging from 18 to 20 years old, who took a rather keen interest in us. I was a little tipsy at this point and extremely excited about the prospect of practicing French with actual French teenagers, so I eagerly played along. We hung out with them for an hour or two, and they were really nice and fun to talk to. We had a good time, but around 1:30 AM or so realized we should probably go home and go to bed, since we would have to wake up at 7:30 AM the next morning.

Moi et Heather:

Yeah, the next morning. Ouch. I had a bit of a headache (understatement) when I woke up, but luckily Ibuprofen helped knock it out. That was definitely a difficult wakeup, though...

The next night was our last in Tours (Thursday), so of course we had to go out again. Tara and I purchased one bottle of wine instead of two this time, and headed to the Loire to meet SBC people. That night, there was a huge group of us and we all just hung out and talked about how excited/nervous we were for Paris. We also stopped by La Guingette, a bar/club outdoors right by the river, where they were having salsa night and we tried to dance to some salsa songs (French people can dance salsa surprisingly well). I also looked on with jealousy as I saw some girls from my program being twirled around by handsome French boys. Ah, c'est la vie.

Arrival in Paris:

When we got off the bus, we all piled into a huge auditorium to be paired up with our host families. Delaney (my new roommate) and I were paired up with Monsieur de Scorraille and his 5 year-old son Charles who was also there to greet us. We then pulled our suitcases to the metro stop, up and down metro stairs, on and off of the metro, etc. The metro was extremely crowded, so it was a little difficult, but we made it. M. de Scorraille (Bruno) was very nice right away, explaining to us how the metro works, telling us they would speak slowly to us at first, and complimenting our French.

When we got to the apartment, the eccentric and talkative host mom, Sandra, was there to greet us with the other three children: Godfroi (1.5), Amoury (10), and Antoine (12). All 4 are boys, and they all look very different from each other. Two have light hair, two have dark hair. Anyway, the kids are all very sweet and Sandra was very quick to explain all the rules of the house to us, tell us how things operate, ask us if we have questions, and just generally make us feel welcome. My room here is very cute and comfortable--there are clouds on the wall, an ice cream cone lamp, a fridge (!), and lots of shelf space for my clothes (which I will be able to retrieve from storage on Monday...can't wait). I really like my room and my family, although I've been a bit shy about interacting with them outside of meal times (4 small children can actually be quite intimidating...especially since they speak French really fast). I definitely want to be able to spend time with them outside of meals, but I don't know for sure how they feel about that...maybe they want our lives to remain somewhat separate rather than me being an actual part of their "family." Well, I guess we'll see what our relationship turns out to be. Sandra did say that she still keeps in touch with several exchange students they've hosted before, and that many have even come back to visit them. I think that is very promising and shows that they are actually interested in getting to know their students and establish a good relationship with them.

Overall, they seem like very good, level-headed, welcoming people. Now, the apartment--it is perhaps not in the best shape. The stuffing of the couch is coming out in a few spots, some floor tiles in the kitchen are broken, stacks of papers/books are laying around, etc. Okay, so they're not super organized, I'm thinking. However, the apartment doesn't seem "dirty" to me...there was a bit of dust in my room, but nothing I can't handle. My roommate, however, freaked out as soon as we arrived--she called Mme Parnet, the housing director, immediately and requested she be moved because she couldn't live in such a shithole, essentially. She didn't use that word, but that's what she implied. She also told me today that she had requested no roommate, which kind of makes things awkward. I feel like she resents me for being here, even though I didn't request to have a roommate either. It really just feels like she isn't giving the situation a chance to work out. It makes me realize that, compared to many people (especially upperclass Americans), I'm actually quite adept at adapting to new environments and situations. I didn't come to Paris with any specific expectations of what the family would be like, and I think that helped me a lot. All I knew was that those kids were going to be darn cute, and oh my goodness they are. They are adorable, and the parents are nice, talkative, and interesting, and really that's all I hoped for. Maybe the apartment isn't in the best shape, but I think it's worth the sacrifice. Also a side note--the meals are AMAZING. Well, at least the two so far have been. The mom loves to cook and said she's going to try to make a lot of different typical French meals for us (score!!). And I finally get to eat cheese at every meal (unlike in Tours), which is something I really felt I was missing out on.

Today, I met Laura and we set out exploring. We visited the following places: Sacre Coeur, Cimetiere de Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, Jardin de Tuileries, Louvre (didn't go in, but saw it...that counts, right?), Galleries Lafayette (incredible...and incredibly EXPENSIVE), H & M (too too crowded!), saw the Opera, saw the Obelisk, saw the Eiffel Tower & Arc de Triomphe from afar. Phew, I think that was it. This whole trip, including stopping for lunch, took us about 5 hours...and we walked the whole time with the exception of the metro from the Louvre back home. :)

Speaking of lunch...we found a GREAT deal at a boulangerie near Montmartre: 5 euro for a demi-baguette sandwich, a can of juice/soda, and a pastry. Yesss. I finally got to try a tarte a citron, which was wonderful and would have cost me 2,50 by itself! I hope I find amazing deals like that in other boulangeries....although I need to get out of the habit of eating so much dessert, haha.

Anyway, that's about it for today, I think...more exploration of Paris is in store for tomorrow! I

also saw some cheap shoe stores on my street today that I may have to check out....it's just so hard to resist!! Paris is amazing so far and I'm loving it, although it's different than I had imagined. Firstly, there are people EVERYWHERE. Did I come to China by accident instead of Paris? Also, only the true center of Paris really looks like Paris to me, probably because that's the area I had seen all the pictures of. When I saw the Louvre, and then the Arc de Triomphe, and then the Tour d'Eiffel, I couldn't help but have this big stupid, slaphappy smile on my face...it really started to hit me then that I'm actually here, in Paris--the infamous City of Lights, the city of love and art and architecture and wonderful magical things. :) I can't wait to get to know this city...there is so much for me to learn about it. First I just have to realize that yes, this city that I have only seen in pictures

(many

many of them) IS actually real and this is not all just a dream. Because honestly, when I saw the

Tour d'Eiffel, I really wouldn't have been surprised if I had awoken right then to someone shaking me awake from a wonderful dream...

Tiring, yet lovely Monday.

Current status: Ballin'...in France.

Getting up at 7: 30 this morning was tough, as was walking to the Institut in the cold, but the rest of the day was extremely pleasant. A few highlights:

-Lunch at "Mangez-Moi," a restaurant-café that is supposedly Indian but specializes in nan sandwiches with fries inside. Not sure if that is entirely Indian. I had a nan fromage, which was essentially bread with brie baked inside..it was heaven in my mouth.

-Walking in and out of stores on Rue Nationale

-FINALLY finding a black headband to replace my broken one (finding a plain, black headband in France for less than 5 euro is considerably more difficult than one might think)

-Chatting with people outside the Institut

-The incredibly perfect 75 degree weather

-Buying raspberry flavored champagne & a baguette, and eating/drinking by the Loire

-Watching French people enjoying a beautiful late summer evening (when it's nice out it seems like the whole town is outside)

Distinct lowlight of the day:

-The beautiful ring I bought yesterday at la braderie BROKE this morning. Stupid 3 euro ring. It looked like this (below):

And now....(see right)

Good thing I took a picture to forever preserve the memory of the ring I had for less than 24 hours...

Sundays are slow in France...

...and it makes me anxious! I feel like I should always be doing something in order to get the most out of my time here, and that's why Sundays in France (when everything is closed and people stay home for the most part) are somewhat unsettling to me.

Today, however, was a special Sunday: it was the day of la braderie. What this meant was that the main shopping street, La Rue Nationale, was overtaken by street vendors selling their stuff. And the French people went CRAZY for it. Some of the stuff being sold in the streets belonged to the actual stores, and in that case, they would just display some items being sold for low prices right in front of their locations. However, there were also many "independent" sellers--people who just pay to have a spot on the street and set up shop with whatever items they may have. Mostly, the things people were selling tended to repeat themselves. There were several stands selling each of the following: shoes (oh god so many shoes, good thing none of the ones I liked were my size), clothing (especially of the Italian variety), lingerie, make-up, candy (I resisted...I'm proud of myself), handbags, jewelry. Some people were selling more unique things, like ethnic African hats or Native American charms. It was cool to walk through and look at the crazy French people digging through piles of clothing, but by 11:00 AM the street was literally jam-packed. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to find a bag for a cheap enough price (I realized I need one large enough to carry books, notebooks, etc).

My favorite part of the whole place was an adorable little Yorkie puppy. It was sitting in a crate, and when Tara and I walked up to pet it, this young French guy started talking to us about how the dog is part of a circus, they need money to feed the animals, please buy these little pieces du miel (they were like honey-flavored mints) to help. And then he asked me if I was a local (!!!) and when I said we were from the US, he said I spoke French well. :] So then duh, I bought the honey mints for 5 euro... That puppy was so adorable though, I decided I am going to get a little yorkie when I'm older (along with a beagle, a border collie, and a golden retriever).

After that, I just came home and kind of hung out. I had an amazing and amazingly nutella-filled crepe at the braderie, so I skipped dessert at dinner. It really took a lot out of me, but I think I need to start limiting myself to one dessert per day. Ohhh, zut. I hate calories, there is so much deliciousness to be consumed in France....pastries, chocolates, ice cream (here, ice cream = gelato), CREPES, oh my it's ridiculous. When I get to Paris, I'll need to start running my butt off (literally).

Well that's about it...time for me to go to sleep, otherwise I'll never wake up at 7:30 AM!

A tout a l'heure!

P.S. Sorry to all of you who know French for ignoring accents. They are too hard to make on my computer...except for the é!

P.P.S. Sorry for all the parentheses in this post.

last night = pas bon

Last night, we really wanted to go dancing at one of the nightclubs in Place Plume.

Turns out this was a poor life decision. Guys in French nightclubs are one of the following three things:

1. Cute and normal but gay

2. Cute and normal but too shy to approach girls

3. Creepy

This means that the only ones who DO in fact approach... are the creepy ones.

Tara and I danced a little with some somewhat weird/creepy guys, but then things got a little too weird, French guys were interested in getting a bit too intimate, and we skedaddled. It was a fun night up until that point, though?

I also found out that kir pétillant essentially means flavored champagne (you can choose from a variety of flavors)....it's pretty much my new favorite thing.

Also important:

Today we visited a chateau called Chenonceau with the group. It was beautiful and impressive and awe-inspiring, but I have to say, after a while all of the rooms in those castles start to look pretty damn similar. They also gave us 5.5 hours for our visit, which was just entirely too much time to walk around a relatively small castle. Oh well.

Even more important:

For dessert tonight we had balls of vanilla ice cream which were covered with nuts + caramel sauce. There was also a meringue hiding inside the ice cream, and the whole contraption was called "un mystere" (a little sketchy, yeah). It felt like I was eating a heart attack, but it was very very good. How are French people so skinny, though? I really don't get it.

My favorite meal in France.

Tonight, we ate soup. That was not very remarkable.

But THEN Mme V brought out the potatoes and the smoked salmon and I was in high heaven. It was such a nice reminder of home and it was so familiar and tasty and delicious and I loved it. The only thing missing was family :)

Yesterday, I had dessert 3 times..life is good.

Okay so I know it's been a while since I posted anything, and I'm tired of having a post up about a bad day so I thought I should write something.

This week was the first week of classes, and it was pretty tiring to wake up at 8:30 am every morning. I'm not sure if maybe jet lag is still affecting me, but even if I go to sleep early I still feel tired for most of the day. And the bad news is that next week I will have to get up an hour earlier....zut. Classes have been going well though. I have one that is Oral Expression, and each day we debate about a different topic. Today we talked about the death penalty because no one had any other ideas. The first couple of days, our class was very shy about "debating" and no one made real arguments. We're getting better though, I think. It's kind of hard to debate in French, but it's been helpful in revealing the common mistakes we tend to make in conversation. The other class, Langue Francaise, is mostly grammar/vocabulary and therefore fairly boring. Also it lasts nearly 2 hours... :(

Tara and I are a little more accustomed to Mme V by now, so we stay at the dinner table typically for at least an hour just talking to her and asking questions, etc. We've also been having some delicious food....we had spaghetti one night, ravioli last night, we tried le camembert which was actually surprisingly good, and of course dessert every day :D

We never really know what to expect as far as dinner, however. We always start out with a sort of "appetizer" that is usually some kind of vegetable. On Wednesday night, for example, we sat down at the table and saw a dish full of radishes. There was also some kind of spread/paté that Mme V told us was called "rillettes", which is apparently just mushed pork. Mme V told us to grab a radish, spread some rillettes on it, and then bite it. Yum. Okay, it actually wasn't very good. I don't think I had ever tried a radish before, and probably for good reason. Thank you Mom for never making me eat radishes.

That night as a main course we had mini hamburgers. Except in the place of buns, there were tomatoes. Those were really good, although I had never seen anything like it before. I don't know if the culinary experience we are having in Tours is "typical" French or what, but most of it is definitely new to me (aside from spaghetti and ravioli, of course).

As we were finishing dinner, Mme V noticed that there were about 5 spiders right outside the kitchen window. She then proceeded to pull out the bug spray, open the window, and spray those spiders one by one. Then she would close the window, say "adieu, adieu" and kind of wave to the spiders as they fell off the window. For some reason, it was really funny for us to watch a 70+ year-old woman menacingly smiling while spraying spiders.

Thursday, or the day I ate dessert three times:

On Thursday, I ate dessert. Three. Times. And I also decided that I love France.

After class, Tara, Adam, and I bought lunch and then walked to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, where we had a guided tour at 2:00 PM. After we had eaten our sandwiches, we looked for a patisserie where we could get pastries. I bought a "crumble" (apparently pronounced croomble in French) with raspberry filling...AHH it was so good.

Then we went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts....it was my first visit to a French museum so I was excited. I don't know the first thing about art, but hopefully by December I'll know much more.

That night, after dinner, Mme V decided to make crepes for us (finally! She's been telling us for about 5 days that she had been thinking of making them, but always decided against it. It was torture). But we finally had them and they were delicious.

Later, we went to a "concert pop-rock" with other JYF people. The concert was interesting...the first group to perform consisted of 4 girls, of whom only one played an instrument and the others sang some form of a cappella. It was cool, although weird in some parts. Sometimes they sang a little too high/screamy in my opinion. The next group was a local rock band, which was a lot less interesting than the screaming girls. Well the important part of the night: as we were walking home, we walked past a candy store and bought some candy...(irtokarkkeja, I don't know how to say that in English), so that brought the grand total to 3 desserts. It was a pretty good day.