Onwards and Upwards

Well, this is it. The fastest 5 months of my life have flown by in less than a minute and now I am sitting amongst my suitcases and clothes dreading what is to come in 3 hours and 30 minutes. These last few days in Nantes have been wonderful and horrible all at once. I got to move back in with Peter and his roomate, Raphael, for 3 days. It was absolutely great to be back with them. I've been living with two Irish guys, Sean and Alex, for the past 6 nights and I wish I could shrink them and take them both everywhere with me. Everything went smoothly moving out of our apartment..except for the electricity bill which they still won't give us, our insurance they won't let us cancel without a mailed letter requesting such action, and the agency forgetting to give us the paper we needed for the insurance cancelation. Oh France, how I will miss you. But really, these past two weeks have been way too much emotion for me. There have been people leaving everyday, so there have been an abundance of goodbye picnics and drinks every night and going out to eat, etc. We had homemade fajitas last night and a huge breakfast this morning. One exciting adventure was on Saturday I went to Paris with the Gaelic football team and we played in an all day tournament for all the best teams in France. Long story short, I can officially say I have played for the 3rd best Gaelic football team in France. :) But honestly, I can't put into words what this semester has done for me. I have changed in ways that I never foresaw and have made some of the most interesting, funny, sweet, smart, dynamic friends a person could hope for. God has blessed me with so many opportunities and experiences and  I will miss this place with all my heart.

Watch Out For The Water Behind You!! ...we're in the ocean.

I have exactly 18 days left, including today. Leah leaves a
week from today. It’s all starting to sink in that my time abroad is almost
over. I can’t believe it. I told someone the whole Anne saga the other day and
it literally feels like a lifetime ago that I lived there, yet it was just
yesterday that she picked us up from the train station. Sigh. I’m not ready to leave.
BUT, there have been some exciting/terrifying/awesome things that have happened
in the past couple days that I want to recount. Friday was our Scottish friend,
Mairead’s birthday. We all hung out in the residence for a while and then had
agreed to go to a bar of her choice. It was so much fun and we danced the night
away. However, the real story was on the way back. A group of us, me, Leah,
Melissa, Guillermo, Giovanni, Elias, Peter all left to walk back home. Elias
had had a little too much to drink, so it was difficult to move quickly. Leah
got cold and decided to run home and the rest of us stayed to help get him home
safely. We were about halfway home when all of a sudden we heard one of our
friends, Agnes, screaming for Peter and Guillermo. It wasn’t a ‘hey, wait up’
scream either. We all turned around to see her and our other friend, Michael
with two big French guys. One of them was grabbing Michael’s shirt with his
forearm pressed up against his throat and the other one was up in his face
saying things we couldn’t hear. Peter and Guillermo took off running to go
help. The full story is that Agnes wanted to leave the bar about 20 minutes
after we had left, so Michael told her he would walk her home. On their way
back they heard two guys walking behind them. Agnes told Michael that she didn’t
feel comfortable because she thought they were following them. Michael wasn’t
worried though, so they blew it off. But they kept following them and getting
closer and closer. At this point Michael was a little worried and told Agnes that
if they grabbed her, he would try and fight them off, but if they grabbed him,
that she was to start screaming because they saw us up ahead. About a minute
later one of the guys came up behind Michael and put his arm around his throat
and asking him if he was scared over and over, hence Agnes screaming for us.
After they came over to help though, the guys backed up because Peter is around
6’4” and they didn’t know that their friends were close. Michael said later
they were just looking for a fight. I’m jumping around a lot, but after they
backed off, the boys got all of us girls moving quickly and Peter had to go and
get Elias who had wandered off. As soon as he was out of sight the French guys
picked up these huge rocks and started walking towards us shouting all this
stuff. Right at that moment though, Peter and Elias (who is just as tall as
Peter) intercepted the path in between them and our group and they stopped and
left after that. The only reason I’m telling this story (as I normally would
have left it out for the protection of my mother’s nerves) is because I would
like to point out that everything happens for a reason. If Elias hadn’t had
stopped to get food, stopped to eat it, wandered off, etc, we would have been nowhere
near to help Michael and Agnes. Michael said he was sure he would have ended up
in the hospital, and if he had been hurt, what would have happened to cute,
little, English, blonde Agnes. Praise to God for taking care of our friends and
planning everything out. Yes, at the time it was annoying that Elias was taking
ages to walk anywhere, but thank God he did. WHEW. So on to happier stories. Yesterday was one of the
best days ever! Got to sleep in got ready and met a bunch of our Irish friends and
some of their Gaelic football team to go to the BEACH! Last Thursday Leah and I
got invited to go to their Gaelic football practice. We were all in as it’s a
sport we had never played. Long story short, it was amazing. I got tacked by my
German friend who also came to play that night. My right leg has huge scrapes
from my knee to my ankle, but I still absolutely love it! Leah and I even
looked up the Indianapolis Gaelic football league afterwards. J We rode with Clodagh,
Jerome, and his girlfriend Felicity. It took around an hour to get there as it’s
right next to La Boule. I taught an Irish guy and some French men how to throw
an American football, which was really amusing. Meanwhile the guys all set up
the Gaelic football goals. Then we played BEACH GAELIC! Not sure if that’s ever
been done before, but it was a blast. We played some volleyball and then went
for a swim in the ocean. The Irish are so funny, they must have reapplied sunscreen
over ten times in the four hours we were there. They all said they are white,
get burnt to a crisp, and then return to white. Hah. We came back around 6,
showered and got ready really quickly, and headed over to one of our Mexican
friend’s apartment for Mexican Night! Ana and Andrea are the two Mexican girls
here and they made a dinner of Chilaquiles. Andrea made a homemade spicy salsa
to go with it and I almost cried with joy. I have been not only craving Mexican
for months, but anything with a little flavor/spice. It was delicious. For
dessert we had Dulce de Leche. Heaven. I got to talk for a while to a girl from
Uruguay. One of the things I love most about being in France is meeting people
from all over the world. It’s so interesting to hear about her life because it’s
so different from mine. All in all, yesterday was kinda perfect. J

Today’s a lazy day. I eventually have to study for my exam
which is..tomorrow. Eh. After this exam and a paper that’s due Thursday, school
is officially over at Audencia. I’m really happy summer’s almost here, but that
also means I won’t be here anymore. ;alkdgf;adjf.

croque Monsieur

I am starting to realize that my vacation is almost over and I don't like it one bit. Yesterday was insane. Well let me start before that. Our first day in Paris we had loose plans to go tour the Opera Garnier and go to Musée d'Orsay. So after sleeping in a little, we went to the opera; the inside is just breathtaking. One of the hallways rivaled if not surpassed the hall of mirrors that we had seen the previous day. While we were inside tooling around, we saw a poster for the ballet of Romeo and Juliet at the Opéra National de Paris-Bastille for that same day in about two hours. I glanced at Leah and told her that we could probably still make it if we wanted too. So after hurriedly finishing our self-guided tour, we ran to the metro station and arrived at the other opera ten to fifteen minutes later. Upon arriving, the woman informed us that the ballet was sold out and the line for potential extra tickets was log so basically we didn't have a chance. Thus being the stubborn women that we are, we thanked her and got in line. :) After waiting for around a half hour and getting up to second in line, the man told us that there were absolutely no more tickets. However no one else was moving, so we held our spot. The people right in front of us got some tickets for 89€ and bei at te front of the line, we figured to just wait until the play started, which at that point was in ten minutes. Finally the man came up and said the had 15€ student tickets. AHH! so we paid and literally had to run from the ticket office into the main building and 30 seconds after we sat down the lights turne off. Win. Our seats were ground floor in the dead center, last row. Basically amazing. The ballet is beyond description. I won't even try. Afterwards we had to pick up Kelli, Leahs friend from back home who came to visit for a week. After runnig through the metros and train stations ( naturally we were late) we got her and went to a cutie pizza place for a late dinner. We arrive at Amaury and Nathalies place around 11, chatted for a bit, an went to bed. Yesterday was basically a full day of sightseeing. We went to Notre Dame, Louvre, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower (where there were, no joke, no less than 11 wedding couples), Napoleons Tomb, out to the best creperie in Paris for dinner, then back to the Eiffel to see it at night. IT SPARKLES!!!!! Oh word it was amazing. It happens on the hour so we saw it once and then stayed an extra hour until it sparkled again. I'm not sure how I missed it the last 2 times I've been here, butit was incredibleeee. Afterwards we took a quick trip to the Moulin Rouge and back to our couchsurfers. Today Leah and Kelli left for London, so I hung out at Amuaryand Nathalies place until I met Malika to exchange money andeat a delicious dinner at her house. LONDON TOMORROW!

Metro Angel

I think I understand why French people don't like to shave..it's hard enough to turn around in the shower much less find a way to reach your leg. I definitely think we should cut these people slack, as I think I might give up shaving too after that incident. Sooo, I'm in Paris now. Long story short, Leah and I were planning on staying with our friend from school our second night in Paris (our first was spent on the floor of the airport) but then she told us she had somewhere to go. I then texted my couchsurf host because he works at a hostel and got the name and address of that. When we got to the hostel however, the man told us it would cost us 38€ a piece. Yeaa. I don't think so. That left us with no place to stay and honestly we almost went back to the airport. But we called our friend Malika who called her roommate and our friend, Diane, and she told us we could stay at her house. Angel. Because at this point it was dark outside and we weren't sure where we were. But God is good and we made it to her house safely about a half hour later. Her parents are out of town and she went back to her friend's apartment after she let us in and showed us around; so basically we had this beautiful Parisian apartment to ourselves. yesss. Due to getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before and walking around Versailles all day (beautiful beautiful beautiful) we didn't make it much longer after we arrived. Short recap, we were in Mallorca for 3 nights, 4 days and it was so incredibly breathtakingly beautiful there. Our courchsurfer host, Simone, was a gem and we got to see a defense castle overlooking the city, a cathedral that I think rivals Notre Dame, and palm trees and ocean everywhere (it is an island :). We also got to lay out on the beach two days in a row. The first day we went to this little beach somewhere other than Palma (the main city and where we were staying). Basically the beach was tiny but amazing and we had it all to ourselves. Private beach in Spain? Why yes, thank you. We ever got to lay out on chairs for free, though the price of our ice cream made up for that. Anyway, Jessica's morning computer time has run out. Paris awaits.

Mallorca

This is the most beautiful city in the world. Yes, I keep saying that about every city I go to, but seriously. This place is drop dead gorgeous. Even in the cloudy, pouring rain it is majestic. Last night after a half hour nap, we left Diana's at 3:30 am to catch the night bus that would take us to the airport. We arrived, checked in, and set up camp outside our gate to wait for our 6:25 flight. We arrived in Mallorca at 7:30, but didn't have to meet our couch surfer host until 9:30, so we took an hour nap on some metal chairs in the airport. My back felt great after that. The bus system here screwed us over because none of the bus stops have the name on them and the sign inside the bus was broken, so we ended up missing our stop and our 15 minute ride ended up taking over an hour. We had to ask people for directions to our host's (Simone) apartment and then slept from 11 to 4:30. Simone is a young twenties student on internship here from Germany, and she's so sweet. She went with us sightseeing and then sat with us during dinner. We were sooooo hungry due to the fact we had had one muffin at 9 that morning. So at 7 at night we got our second meal of Penchos and Pa Amb Oli. yum yum. Now it's shower and movie night because it is pouring down rain outside. PS - Mallorca and Barcelona are the cleanest cities I have even seen in my life. I literally have a picture of a woman mopping the sidewalks in Barcelona. They are immaculate. Take note America.

Saint Jordi (you ole hoot owl)

I got robbed today. Right in the metro station as I was leaving. Ok it was more of a pick-pocketing incident, but getting robbed sounds more intense with the same technical meaning. Full story : I have been so aware and slightly paranoid about getting pick-pocketed while in Barcelona. I thought I would be ok because I have a purse that has a flap cover that buckles at the bottom and I was wearing my jacket over it so no one could cut the strap and I always kept it in front of me where I could see it. But these people are good. So we were leaving the station and suddenly there was a guy directly behind me. I heard someone saying to watch out but it wasn't really registering in my brain until I felt a slight tug on my purse. Something in me freaked out and I spun around and my fist potentially hit him in the stomach and knocked my wallet out of his hand and onto the floor. I started shouting and he put his hands up and said sorry over and over like it was an accident his hand ended up in my bag. After that I basically carried my purse in my arms the rest of the day and was suspicious of anyone within 3 feet of me. But it was a really good day. We slept in and had breakfast and lunch with Diana. Then we went to the town hall where it's the only day in the whole year that it is open to the public. It was the most beautiful building ever and it was decorated with roses in honor of Saint Jordi day, which is like Valentine's Day in the US. There were rose stands and book stands everywhereeee because the guys get the girls roses and the girls get their guys books. Cute tradition. We went in a couple shops and then got an early dinner at a really yummy sandwich shop. We had to go buy an adaptor then because I forgot to bring mine then we headed back to the fountains to watch the show again. OK SO. Last night we went to this fountain show. Basically the most incredible thing ever. I think I took 7.23 million pictures. The street leading up to the fountain was lined with smaller fountains and then the mother of all fountains is in front of the most grand building I think I've ever seen. The show was set to music and it was all lit up and I'm pretty sure I just stood there in awe the entire time. So we went back to that again tonight just because it was that good and came back to Diana's to pack. Well, earlier she went on a date and then offered to make dinner for the guy. But being the amazing person she is, she cooked for Leah and I as well, so we just got done eating the meal that started at about 10 pm..yes it is confirmed that that is not an uncommon time to eat dinner, at least in Barcelona. Yummy but now I'm stuffed to the max. Not going to sleep tonight either due to the fact we have to leave the apartment at 3 to catch a bus to the airport where our plane leaves at 4:30 to Mallorca. Yay!

Wine Stains

First day in Spain = success. Woke up and got breakfast with Diana at a little bakery around 10. I got this mini baguette with this potato baked square things on it. Super yummy. Also. I GOT COFFEE!! ah life. It was amazing and Diana paid for us before we could stop her. Leah and I then hopped on the metro to go see the Sagrada Familia. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It was designed by Antonio Gaudi, who also has other breathtaking structures around the city. Afterwards we walked the streets of Barcelona (yes, it is as magical as it sounds) and made our way to Passeig de Gracia, which is a huge and beautiful street filled with retail and restaurants and various designs by Gaudi. We shopped for a little bit (we are women) and I bought a new shirt! funfunfun. We then walked to the Barcelona Catedral de la Santa Creu. We didn't go inside either church because we were broke from shopping and the line was enormous. But, we definitely appreciated from the outside. There were some street performers ourside the church, so we got to watch them dance/flip/climb on each other for a while. We then walked towards the beach and found the Christopher Columbus statue. From there we tried to find this park Diana told us about, but ended up in a construction zone..soo, we tried finding the Picasso museum, but it took us about an hour to do that and by that time we told Diana we would go back to her apartment to help her grocery shop. Ps - her apartment is gorgeous. It is above a Volkswagen shop and it is new and clean and well decorated and we have our own room with a comfy bed. Love. We went grocery shopping with her and almost cried because everything is so cheap here compared to France. She bought seven apples for the price that we buy one back in France. I am debating buying in bulk here and shipping it to myself. Definitely tempting. We hwlped her make a dinner of two salads and fruit. One salad had lettuce, carrots, olives, and brown tomatoes? I don't know but they were delicious and a bit sweeter than regular tomatoes. The other salad had rice, apple, this crab stuff, and one other ingredient I can't remember. But they were both wonderful. Then came heaven. I got to eat a plum. jakhgf;adf; fruit! and strawberries with a glass of red wine. She also had her German friend come over and basically I love her. So we had a great girls night in and now I am excited to sleep in tomorrow.

Barcelona!

We are in Barcelona! It was all in all a really smooth day of traveling. We took a train to Paris at 1:00, then took the RER to CD airport. We boarded right away and I slept most the way to Barcelona. We arrived at 8:00 and that's where some stress set in. Our couch surfer host hadn't given us very good directions to her house, in fact, all we really had that we understood was her address. She was also flying in an hour after us from Moscow (she's Russian) so we were going to wait for her at her baggage claim. But then we got a message from her saying to just meet her at her house. Well we had no idea how to get there and after asking three different people in the airport for help and getting three different answers, we decided to catch the bus over to the other terminal where she would be arriving. This was a good plan until the bus literally took ten minutes to get to the other terminal. By that time her plane had already landed and we waited for her and waited but we didn't see her so we assumed she left. We then discovered that neither of our French phones worked in Spain and we weren't receiving any calls from her. After trying for ages to figure out how to work the pay phones, we finally got ahold of her. However, the phones charged basically 1 Euro for 30 seconds of talking. Then it just straight ate some of my money. Ten Euro later and still no concrete directions on how to get to her house, we just decided to take a cab. First time in a taxi! It was more expensive than the bus and metro would have been, but we didn't want to risk being lost in Barcelona on our first night at 11pm with no way of communicating with our host. It really wasn't that bad though. But our host is AMAZING. She's this adorable Russian woman in her late 20's who's working and taking night courses. She gave us water and gezpacho  and we sat around and talked about everything from her work to her exboyfriend to her grandma who stuck chocolate and garlic in her suitcase because she's convinced that they don't have anything in Spain. haha cutie. Also, her mom works for a cosmetic company, so we got to go through all her samples. precious. Sightseeing starts and ends tomorrow it seems. Since this weekend is Good Friday to Easter, everything will be closed all weekend. Hence that puts a damper on actually visiting Barcelona, but I'm not really worried. Super sleepy though...

P90X

I am officially on a three week break from school. I LOVE the French system! Our Spring Break is supposed to be only two weeks long, but we were only scheduled for one class this week on Friday for some reason, so we talked to the teacher and she agreed to reschedule the class, so now our two weeks has turned into three. Fabulouss! Starting on Thursday, Six girls from my volleyball team and two guys from the guy team represented Audencia in a beach volleyball tournament. We all drove to La Baule late morning and played until late afternoon. I had never played beach volleyball officially and it is possibly one of the greatest sports ever. Leah and I were on a team and ended up getting third in the tournament. Granted, there were only 5 teams total, but we didn't come in last and we got a medal, so could have been worse. It was an absolute blast though. I was dead tired though. I have great respect for people that can play that all day everyday. I had a skype interview that night for International Orientation Guide for when I get back to Butler. I think it went well but won't find out until May if I got the position or not. Then Friday night Leah and I had Malika, Diane, Adele, and Estefania over for dinner. We made them Chili con Carne and Malika brought over vegetables and cheese for an appetizer and Diane brought an apple pastry for dessert. It was so much fun, and the food was pretty good if I do say so myself. After the dinner we all stopped by my old roommates flat for a get together they were having. It was a good time but all the marketing majors were supposed to go to a party that night, so we headed over and danced to classics such as Man I Feel Like a Woman and Cotton Eye Joe (which I taught them all the proper way to do the cotton eye joe like people from Tennessee). Lots of fun but I literally couldn't breathe because everyone was smoking and there was no open window or anything. Today I woke up, worked out and then tons of the Erasmus students went to cheer on our Irish friends for their championship gaelic football match. They ended up losing but it was a really close and exciting game. Leah, Bryan, Janina and I then went to IKEA / shopping mall because I had to buy Leah a new duffel bag as I broke her other one. Oops. Then a group of us went out for Mexican because it was Janina's birthday (sweetest German girl ever). This Mexican restaurant was hilarious as practically nothing on the menu was Mexican. I got a a plate of two burritos, which, I thought was going to be massive amounts of food. False. When the plate came out I almost laughed as the burritos were about the size of my pointer finger. There were approximately 7 beans on my plate as a side and some shredded lettuce for my salad. This is why the French are all skinney I imagine. To celebrate her birthday with everyone else we met people at our typical bar, La Maison where we played card games and ate a really good birthday cake. I also got to talk to the Korean girls and they are my new favorite. We learned/played a Korean hand game in which you slap people's hands if they are doing the same motion as you or something like that. They said that if you play it for over an hourish then blood vessels start popping. I told them suppressed anger and violence was not the answer. However, oddly enought, I found the game amusing. I will go to church tomorrow evening and in the meantime not spend any money. Probably a very good thing buy it's not by choice. I totally blanked on my pin number today and entered the wrong number three times before Leah just bought my purchase for me. I now owe her 20 Euro. But when I remembered my pin later and went to the bank to withdrawl money to pay her back, the thing told me I had entered my pin wrong too many times and then wouldn't give me my card back. This is slightly problematic as the bank is closed tomorrow and Monday and I leave Wednesday for Spain. mmhm. Yes this is a problem.

Goat Cheese

After a wonderful bowl of cereal with sliced banana and yogurt, I have decided I shall blog. Leah and I are now officially moved into our apartment and all is going well. Praise Jesus. Things are still a little jank around here though, not going to lie. :) We only have one lightbulb for our entire apartment and one for both sections of our bathroom. That means that if you aren't right by the kitchen, you're in the dark aaaand to use the toilet (unless you want to make it a public affair) you will also be in pitch black. ha Part of that may or may not have been my fault as I may or may not have accidently broke one of the lights when I dropped it. Hmm. Gernerally not a good thing. I can't decided if we will be cheap and just live in partial darkness at night or if we will break down and buy a lightbulb soon. Only time will tell. Let's see, this past weekend was incredible. We did nothing. Between Missy coming to visit, escaping to the beach, going on the WEI, I haven't had a weekend in Nantes in quite a while. Friday evening we officially moved out of our guy's apartment and got all of our stuff out of Claire and Julia's. The front door to our apartment is wedged inbetween a bunch of cafes that put hundreds of tables out front for people to sit at. So we walked by the same people so many times that after a while I felt like we were their evening entertainment as we tried to figure out ways to manuver everyone without casualties. We also went out to eat with our Irish friends to an Indian restaurant where I had the most incredible piece of nan bread and some lamb amazingness. That night Bryan came over and helped us unpack all of our stuff. And by help I mean he sat on our bed and asked us questions about America :) I love having foreign friends. We got to learn a little about Ireland too, I'm sad I don't get to go there. Perhaps someday. Saturday Leah, Kevin, and I went to our friend's Gallic football match. So much fun. It's a really interesting sport but I got a little sunburnt. Sunday Clodagh, Bryan, Eoin, Clodagh's friend, Leah and I laid by the river and played cards all afternoon. Sheena taught us how to make chili con carne for dinner and it's so easy and so good! We visited Peter and our French roommates mostly to use their internet but also because we missed them of course. Yesterday we had class all day - strugs to stay awake not going to lie. They set you up for failure though. Put 35 of us in a warm classroom with the same subject and teacher for 6 hours and expect acute attention the whole time? hahaha I got some couchsurfing for London done last night and worked on my resume for FOREVER as I have recently been in contact with a guy from the Pacers about internships. woo! I tutored his daughter so hopefully something will come from this. Going to the electric company today and the CAF - potential government aid and the post office. yay errands. a tout!

Updates!

Let’s see, the last time I updated was a long long time ago. I really am sorry about not giving regular updates. It’s so hard to find adequate time because I always want to include all the details but can never find the time to, so I just don’t write anything instead of giving a minimum account. Not good. But let’s start out with some good news. Leah and I are in the process of finalizing paperwork for our new apartment!!! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our accommodations. It was definitely not coincidence how we came across this apartment and how everything has worked out
so well. One of the Erasmus students left the semester early to finish his studies in Spain, and a mutual friend of ours told us about it. It is directly in the Center of Nantes, which is absolutely incredible, and it was affordable. Leah and I were so excited and thought it would be perfect until we contacted the owner. He told us that on top of the monthly fee, we would have to pay hundreds in agency fees along with buying insurance. We would also have to give a two month notice of when we were leaving. This was a perceived problem as we are only staying in France for two more months. All of these factors combined seemed to turn this awesome apartment into a definite no. BUT, Max (the owner) said he could wave 90% of the agency fees and that the two month notice wouldn’t be a problem, the bank is allowing us to only buy two months of insurance, and the agency we’ve been working through has been really helpful. Not going to lie, it’s still an incredible hassle trying to communicate and get all the correct paperwork everywhere it needs to be on time. Between arranging insurance, contracts, and an electric company on top of about 6 school projects, WEI (more to come on that), and living out of a suitcase, it’s been a semi-stressful two weeks. It’s also been so incredible. We have been staying with our friend Peter and his three French roommates since we moved out of Claire and Julia’s apartment. It was really convenient because they have two
extra mattresses and a massive apartment that is about a two minute walk from where we are keeping our large suitcases. They are all so much fun and so wonderful to house us so long. We were planning on moving out last Friday, but that failed miserably and here we are the next week Tuesday. We cooked them dinner last Thursday (quite delicious if you ask me) and spent almost an hour doing all their dishes and cleaning the kitchen (nasty boys), so we hope that it’s not too terrible living with us.

WEI (Weekend of Integration)

So.Much.Fun. We left this past Saturday (4/2-4/3/11) at 7:40 am. Aka, too early for Jessica. Leah and I (America) were on a bus with Elias (Sweden), Peter, Janina, and John (Germany), Melissa (Scotland), Alice (UK), Mathieu (Canada), Anna (Mexico), the 4 Korean girls, lots of Chinese,  and other wonderful friends that sat in the front of the huge bus; I believe I counted 13 nationalities on the bus. I don’t know I think that’s pretty awesome. We sang songs and then had a competition to see who could guess parts of songs and from what movies they came from. We also had to fill out a questionnaire about ourselves and then come up and talk about the most embarrassing things we wrote down. Apparently they liked my sheet because I had to tell two stories. I also had to explain the meaning of skinny dipping to the entire bus..potential culture shock for most of the Chinese. Whoops. Our first stop was to go paintballing. I had never been before and was honestly a little nervous. However, that didn’t last long. I now love paintballing and have several battle wounds to prove it. Except some not so nice dumb guy came up and shot my ankle while my back was to him and he was about two feet away from me. I was about to shoot his face off but the ‘overseer’ person made him leave the game first. Probably a good thing for his sake. (mostly kidding). I killed a total of around 9 people and got killed 4 times. If anyone ever wants to go, count me in. We all ate lunch at the paintball place, and had an..let’s just go with the word interesting..lunch. It was bratwurst, but instead of a bun, they gave us crepes. Ahh France. It could have potentially not been bad, except the crepes were stone cold. Regardless, I was famished so I ate both my brats and some chips and maybe three cookies. (Spring Break diet starts next week) Then our bus switched locations with the other bus and we went to tree climbing while they did paintballing. This tree course was incredible. It was
about 5 times the size of the one I work at and everything was attached to the actual trees, not just posts, so it was integrated into the nature and it was just so beautiful to be climbing in the trees. I don’t think I have ever had so much fun. There were so many zip lines, plus two that went over a gorgeous lake, and tons of different elements. Five other people and I decided to climb on the
highest elements that were 30 meters high. I know I keep saying it was beautiful, but the view was breathtaking. After a few hours of climbing, we were bused to the hostel we were staying at. It was very nice for being a hostel, but the rooms got messed up and mine and Leah’s room got combined with Elias, Peter, and Constantine’s room. We were given a grand total of 25 minutes to get ready and leave for the restaurant. Four speed showers later we got on the bus and went to this very nice restaurant. Our table was next to a full length window where we watched the sun set over the ocean during our dinner. It was incredible. The food was delicious too. We had some chicken and vegetable
goodness wrapped in a type of rice paper and covered with this creamy mushroom sauce. For dessert we had an apple pastry of sorts and a glass of white wine. We went to the beach after dinner and then to a club that night. The next morning we took a walk on the beach and through the streets of St. Malo. It was so adorable and the flowers they had planted were (I’m running out of positive
adjectives) spectacular. Lunch was back at the hostel and then we had about a 45 minute bus ride to Mt. St. Michelle. (Please research images on Google because I forgot my camera when we went and words will not do this place justice). We toured around there for a few hours and then had about a 3 hour bus ride back to Nantes. All in all the weekend was so much fun and I got to know a bunch of the French and other Erasmus students a lot better. Yay new friends!

Hopefully I can get details up about Missy’s visit soon!

Homeless in France

I'm not sure where to start. I haven't blogged in forever, but my life has
been non-stop for the past three weeks. In addition, the past few days have
been the most dramatic in my entire life. Exaggeration? Nope. I had an amazing
time in Berlin, which I will probably never post about, and Missy just came to
visit me in France, and hopefully I will get details about that up soon, but I
would like to dedicate this blog to my experience with my host family that has
literally left Leah and me with no permanent residence for the next two months.
It started last Tuesday, March 15th. Leah, Missy and I were invited to a wine
and cheese party at our friends, Julia and Claire's apartment. It was a going
well and we were having a lot of fun, when I started talking to Claire about
how I still wasn't happy living with Anne. After talking for a while, Claire
looked at me and said, "You know we have an extra room here right?"
One thing led to another and they ended up offering the extra room in their
apartment for Leah and I to share, split rent, and move in as soon as possible.
It was too good to be true. Literally. We'll get to that in a second. So we
left that night positive that it would work out and thinking we had new
roommates. They thought after we left that it was a strong possibility but not
for certain. So we were planning on just riding out living with Anne and
putting up with it for the next two months, but since such an awesome
opportunity to get out had arisen, we of course jumped at the chance to get
out. We talked about it and realized that we should probably give her a month's
notice that we were moving out, but we didn't want to talk to her until we
talked with the school. That Friday, Leah and I talked to John, the man in
charge of all the foreign students, and asked him if we were allowed to move
out. He told us that we could technically move out at any moment because all we
had done was made e-mail agreements and technically those weren't contracts. He
also said that we should probably tell her as soon as possible to allow her
time to potentially find other people to take our places. We were leaving for a
beach house that night, and we wanted to give her as much notice as possible
that we were planning on moving out at the end of the month, so when we got home
from school on Friday, we asked Anne if we could talk to her. As nicely as we
could manage, we told her that a new opportunity had come up to live with our
French friends for cheaper, and that we weren't happy living in her house. Long
story short, she was furious. She went off about how we were young, uneducated,
flitty American girls that didn't understand the real world. She said how it
wasn't a surprise that I was doing this to her but she couldn't understand why
Leah would do it too. She completely denied that there were any problems
between me and the family (which is not true as Leah and I compiled a list of
36 reasons as to why we wanted to remove ourselves from her house). She then
turned to threatening to go to our bank and withdraw money from our bank
accounts. Of course that's not possible, but it was still scary to see her
telling us we were breaking the law and she could take our money, etc. After
talking at us for a little over a half hour, she left Leah's room fuming. We
tried to handle it as maturely as possible and sat there calmly while she
insulted us and told us exactly the opposite as John had told us, but it was
hard to not be completely shaken up. We had to meet our friend, a different
Claire, because she was driving us and her friend, Remy, up to her beach house
for the weekend. Since that whole incident had just occured, we never had the
chance to tell Anne that we were leaving for the weekend, and we weren't about
to go find her again, so we just left. The drive was about 1 1/2 hours long and
we arrived at this 3 story house that can comfortably sleep 15 people and the
front of the house is literally ten steps from the beginning of the sand.
Basically to die for. The next morning we woke up to two missed calls from
Anne. We sent her a text saying that we were sorry we didn't tell her and that
we would be home Sunday night. She responded saying that she had our emails and
she wanted to talk again when we got back. Oh joy. The weekend was perfect
though. I took a nap on her front porch for an hour right next to the beach. We
went for walks and I got to journal and even took a bath. yess. I was/still am
sick though with a nasty cold, but minor details. Leah and I also had to hole
up in a bar/cafe for one night because the house didn't have internet, so I
skyped my parents in the corner of a bar. Gotta do what you gotta do. However,
this wonderful weekend was interrupted with a call from Julia saying she had
talked to her landlord and that he had said that we weren't allowed to move in.
Leah and I literally sat there and had nothing to say. It was no one's fault
that this happened, it was just a miscommunication as we thought there was no
problem and they hadn't checked earlier because they weren't sure we were
coming. However, at this point there was no way we could stay at Anne's, hence
the having no place to live for the next two months. Small problem. Sunday
night we got back to Anne's and had to go up to her room and ask her if she
still wanted to talk as she was sitting in bed and not making any effort to
initiate the conversation she wanted to have in the first place. Previously to
coming home, Leah and I had agreed that we would say little to nothing except
that we had to talk to John again to sort out all the facts for certain, because
if we legally didn't have to pay her an extra 900 euros, we weren't going to.
So of course Anne starts out with her usual spiel about how we were young and
didn't have a good education and we didn't understand how things were in the
real world etc. I want everyone to know that I understand it wasn't the best of
us to move out in two weeks and not give her a full month, but I literally
hated living there. I wasn't treated with any amount of respect, I was either
ignored or yelled at, there was no inbetween, and no matter how hard I made an
effort to talk or be nice, I was given the impression I was unwanted and a
burden. Anyways, she told us that legally she could take our emails to the
authorities and that we would have to pay her through May, however, she was
willing to cut us a deal and only make us pay all of April. One, this was not
at all what John had told us and two, Anne is the type of person who would
never ever give up money if she could legally obtain it. Leah and I weren't
buying it though, and towards the end of the conversation she was getting so
angry that we weren't agreeing to pay her the full month of April until we
talked to John that she started talking about how she had good friends in
Audencia and that this wasn't between us and the school, it was between us and
her. I believe this is a direct quote from Anne, "You decide to leave?
Fine. I decide you pay. That is how it works." Sounds super legit right?
mmhm. no. Then she proceeded to tell me she had called the school in Feburary
to complain about me and ask for more information on my background. I asked her
what were her complaints and she brought up the time within the first month of
living there that I had accidently spilled coffee in my bedroom because I
didn't know we weren't allowed to have drinks up there. Sounds like a serious
problem to me too, Anne. Good thinking on making sure I don't have a criminal
background or something. After our lovely talk was over, Leah and I ran over to
the residence to return our friends suitcase, and when we returned we decided
that on the next day (Monday) we would either pay her the money or we wouldn't,
but either way we couldn't live in the house anymore. So we spent all Sunday
night packing up all of our things and cleaning out our rooms. We also agreed
that we didn't want to run into the family the next morning, so to avoid any
awkward encounters, we would get to school early and try to talk to John first
thing. I went to bed at 3 that morning at got up at 6:15. Love getting no
sleep. We ended up leaving the house unnoticed at 7 and were on our way to
school when I realized I had forgotten something. Leah waited outside while I
ran up to the door and opened it. Literally the instant I turned around from
quietly closing the door, I see Anne running up the stairs from Leah's basement
room, screaming her head off at me. I have never been more thrown off and
scared in my entire life. This woman was waving her arms, screaming about how
we were trying to leave while the family was all asleep, and to top it off, she
definitely had no pants on. (that detail is of little importance other than it
added to the messy hair and no make-up - just to give a visual of the crazy
mom). This is something of what she was yelling, "YOU LEAVE NOW? NOT
POSSIBLE! YOU PAY ME THIS INSTANT. YOU PAY NOW. I AM FED UP! I AM FED UP WITH
YOU!" This continued for a while as I couldn't form words because I was
still trying to recover from her scaring me when I closed the door. So I opened
the front door and called Leah's name to try and get backup. Unfortunately,
Leah didn't hear me and Anne proceeded to slam the door in my face and scream
that she was going to call the police. At this piece of information, I found
words and had to tell her multiple times that we were just going to school and
we weren't leaving. Ultimately she wouldn't stop yelling at me so I just opened
the front door and left. It took me about 15 minutes for my heart to stop
pounding. We went to the computer lab and printed off our list of reasons why
we didn't want to live with our family anymore, all of our emails, and then
waited outside of John's office until he came in at 9. We told him the whole
story and he advised us to go back to the house immediately and move all of our
stuff out while she was at work for the morning. He also agreed with my dad's
suggestion of paying her half of April to cover the full month's notice
"moral contract". We decided to take Julia, the French girl we were
going to move in with, in case someone was home she could explain in French as
it's hard to communicate effectively with them in English. We also brought our
German friend Peter to help us carry our suitcases out as we had four heavey
ones plus backpacks, etc. I have never been so nervous as I was going to her
house. When we got there Leah and Peter went downstairs to get her things and I
took Julia with me in case Camille was home. Lucky us, she was, and the second
she saw us coming up the stairs she called my name and came barging out of her
room. I walked right by her into my room to get my stuff around and thank God
Julia was there as she intervened and occupied her while I zipped up my suitcase.
As I heard later, Camille just stood there and complained about me mostly but
told Julia she didn't understand why we were leaving as they (the family) had
done nothing but take care of us and how all we did were break rules etc. I'm
not sure what universe she lives in but it's not the same as me. I was so
nervous though, not sure why, as she couldn't really do anything, but I didn't
know what they were saying so it just made me more antsy. Peter came up to grab
my suitcases and as we were leaving, Camille stopped me and said that it was
custom to say goodbye in France. I think I must have looked at her like she was
crazy unconsciously because she then proceeded to ask me why I had never made
an effort to be her friend. I almost laughed outloud but refrained. I wanted to
say because she scared the poop out of me but I said that I was sorry we were
never friends, that I truly wanted to be. Odd but I said goodbye and we got out
of that house as fast as we could. The whole trip took about ten minutes and
honestly I don't know that I would have lasted much longer. After dropping off
our stuff at Julia and Claire's apartment, we had to go to class. During the
break we went up to talk to John, but we heard Anne's voice before we got there
and literally turned around and ran out of the office. That night Julia called
us into the living room - apparently Anne had felt the need to stalk our
facebooks and find our mutual friends and she had sent Julia a facebook
message. This woman is crazy. It said something to the effect of, "Hello,
my name is Mme Roger and my daughter informed me that you were in my house
without my permission and with the knowledge that I was not home. I demand a
full explanation and apology. I also have all your contact information and will
be getting in touch with your parents." Who does that? Julia just laughed
but Leah and I were just amazed at the lengths Anne was taking to intimidate
us. I talked with John the next day about how Anne hadn’t sent in my insurance
for my doctor’s visit, therefore costing me money, and Julia told him about her
message. He said he would get in contact with her and tell her the school told
us to take friends with us. It was really great of him. I guess the only other
semi-exciting news with Anne is that she sent Leah a text yesterday morning
saying something to the effect of, “Leah, I am waiting on an apology letter and
the second half of April’s rent from you and Jessica. If you do not do these
things, I will be forced to take action.” Yeaa. Not sure what that means, but
we were assured again today by the school that she could not take legal action
against us, so at the moment, we believe this issue has been resolved. We wrote
her an apology letter and now must focus on finding a place to live. Please
pray that nothing more happens with Anne, and that we can find a place within
our price range soon. Sorry for writing a small novel.

I'm a fan of friends

I have no idea where to begin. Potentially I should start with the very beginning of Berlin and work my way through the week to today..but I think between everything I did and all the details I would want to include, it would be virtually impossibly to hold anyone's attention that long. Sad. Perhaps I will make two blogs tonight (yes I have homework, no I probably won't do it). I'll write this short one first to warm you up for the massive piece of literature that will follow describing my trip to Berlin. I arrived back to my house from Berlin about 1:30 pm on Monday. My host mom briefly said hi to me and then went back to watching TV. Sounds about right. I did homework, aka made a powerpoint about Scarlett Johansson and her role in the marketing campaign of Moet and Chandon (not an all around uninteresting topic), and then went to meet my group to go over everything I had done. When I got back to the house I immediately went to Leah's room where we caught up on each other's trips. She went to Italy this past week and had some awesome stories..mostly I just sat there jealous of all the gelato she got to eat :) So here's the twist. Anne had a friend over that night. Whatt? Anne has friends! Ok, sorry that's mean, and I can see why she does; she was a completely different person with her friend there - I actually enjoyed her company. PLUS we had an amazing meal! Her friend can move in as far as I'm concerned if it means we get something other than frozen foods. So we had a dinner of rice and then some meat thing in a tomato and it was baked with a really good sauce. We also had bread and cheese andddd...a glass of wine. That is the second time I've ever had wine in her house. I told my pseudo-host dad, Werner (Katie's host dad in Berlin) that my French host family never drank wine and he couldn't get over it the whole week. Hilarious. More on that to come. All the kids weren't there so Leah, Anne, Anne's friend, and I had a pleasant meal and a banana for dessert. Can't complain at all. Today we had class all day. I learned that I would live in a castle in California, married at the age of 26 to a male model with our two kids, an Audi, and I would be a stay-at-home mom. (No, the teacher did not predict everyone's future..although amusing to think about. Leah taught me a game and then everyone in our row 'found out' how our lives would turn out. It was more amusing than the lecture so it's what I retained.) We gave our presentation on Moet and Chandon (the teacher wanted to know where the samples were) and then I hung out in Leah's room for a bit before dinner. SURPRISE! Friend was here again! It even offset Cammie being back. We each had pasta with a full chicken breast and some really good sauce, yogurt for dessert of course. The friend made eye contact with us and smiled and spoke to us and it was nice, I like her.

For Lent I've been thinking. I think I am going to join forces with my mom and give up chocolate for Lent. This will be especially hard as Missy wants to visit a famous chocolatier in Paris. Hmm. But I am so excited to give up something that means a lot to me..probably more than it should actually :) However, in addition to taking something away, I also want to add something to my daily routine. I brought my prayer journal with me to France and I haven't written in it nearly as much as I should. So starting tomorrow I will write in it everyday. God has provided so much for me here and I was absolutely overwhelmed by his love while in Berlin. It was so refreshing for every aspect of my life and I am excited about Lent because it will help keep my focus exactly where it needs to be. So, hopefully an update on Berlin soon! Missy comes in 4 DAYS!!!

Ich LEIBE diese Familie

I am completely overwhelmed. I don't mean that lightly either. Katie's host family in Germany has made me feel more at home here in less than a day then I have ever come close to feeling with my family in France. Before I tell you how much I already love her family though, I will start with Monday. Anne took me to the doctors, which was very kind of her, I really appreciated her coming along with me to help translate. Doctors offices here are really odd. We walked into a waiting room, no receptionist desk or anything, and just sat there with some magazines. There were two doors, each with a different doctor's name on them. Then whenever they were done with a patient, they would walk them out to the waiting room and call the next person back. No nurses, no secretaries, just the doctor. We finally got called back and the door led straight into this big office. It has two chairs facing a big desk and the doctor just sat behind it. It was like a business meeting. It was odd because he didn't take any notes or weigh me or take my height or ask previous medical history or anything really that US doctors always make sure to do every time. So I just told him about my foot (thank you google translate and my jank note I wrote describing my symptoms) and then he took me back through a door where it looked like a regular doctor's room. He then took a brief look at it, made me walk back and forth, and then we went back to the office. No idea what he said or anything, but I'm assuming I just strained or twisted it etc. What I thought was funny though was to write my prescription, he pulled out a piece of computer paper, wrote down crutches and two different kinds of drugs, stamped the paper and handed it to me. I'm telling you what, anyone could have extensive access to all drugs with that one stamp he used. So that was my interesting experience at the doctors.

I left for Berlin early Tuesday morning. Longest walk of my life to the tram stop with my crutches and bag. Anne was up but she didn't bother to say goodbye or safe travels or anything, not like I expected it but just making a note. I got to the bus to take me to the airport and arrived at my gate about an hour before my flight. I was one of 3 people there haha the rest of the flight showed up about ten minutes to boarding. Oh man. Sat next to a cutie lady who was going to NYC with her family for a week. She was the only one out of all five of them who could speak English, so she was excited to practice before they got there. Getting through the Paris airport was kind of horrible, not going to lie. I regretted packing so much as a one strap bag digs into your shoulder after a while, especially since it took me a pretty long time to get everywhere. But all the flight attendants and workers spoke English and were very nice in offering me help, I was just too cheap to accept it. :) Got to my gait with plenty of time to spare and listened in on a conversation some Americans were having behind me (it was nice to hear that's all). I had the pleasure of sitting in the very last seat in the last row of the plane, but I did sit next to a really nice guy named Christian. He is from Germany and is studying geography. It was cool because we talked the whole flight and I asked him questions about German/Germany and he asked me about English/America. I just love seeing the differences between cultures and meeting new people. Oh! And AirFrance serves cappuccinos and the best little cookies! So delicious. Finding Katie and her host dad, Werner, was so easy. I just walked right off the plane and the baggage area was right there (I think it's a much better system than having to go to an area to find everything) and Katie was standing just on the other side of a glass wall. All in all, traveling could not have gone better and I was so blessed with flights and finding everything alright.

But now I must talk about this family. I am staying with Katie's host mom and dad, Sabine and Werner, and their son, Connie. They have three other kids but they don't live in the house. Werner offered to come pick me up at the airport after he learned I was on crutches. He is the most darling man I have ever met. I have forgotten a lot of the German I have learned, but the whole ride back to his house he would talk slowly to me and when I didn't know a word, he would tell me in English and then I would say it back to him in German. He and Katie were fun to watch interact as well. They were joking and laughing together and it was just great. Then he offered to take us sightseeing on Saturday because I probably wouldn't make it through the walking tour we had planned. AHH he is so great. We had dinner right away when we got back. The mom introduced herself to me and then left to play cards, so it was Werner, Connie, Katie and I eating a delicious dinner of some sort of pork and potatoes covered in sauce, and cheesy broccoli. Then for dessert we had a vanilla and red berries pudding-ish thing. It was all fantastic. Werner is a great cook. Then we sat around the table talking and such. After being ignored at dinner for the past two months, it was refreshing to have interest taken in me. I had to speak in German and so much came back to me so quickly and everyone was so great about helping say what I wanted to say. Katie and I are planning to cook for them tomorrow night, and since they are housing and feeding me for free, I want to make them something awesome. Katie and I hung out and talked the rest of the night. She put together a welcome display on her desk for me which consisted of peanut butter (yumm), Finding Nemo (auf Deutsch of course), a coffee mug, two books, a magazine about Berlin, a German dictionary, a cold compress for my foot, and coupons to a chocolate store in town. I do not deserve a friend like her. Thanks to everything set out for me I have definitely not been lacking in things to do today. I am trying to brush up on my German because this family makes me want to learn so I can speak to them. Plus I remember how much I actually love the language. I also have been doing French homework (my brain is not handling switching back and forth from languages very well). Katie gets back tonight around 7:30 and we'll have dinner around then. Werner came and talked to me about what he's going to make tonight. I couldn't understand at all, but I'm sure it will be wonderful. I might go out and do my homework at the kitchen table. Sounds nice to me. I have already been blessed beyond belief with meeting everyone here. This came at the perfect time and it's so refreshing to know that some families aren't hosting for the money. Thank you Jesus for hospitality and generosity.

Disney Channel

I just wanted to start off this blog by talking about something I should mention everytime I write, but I just want to share how good God has been to me. He is really teaching me a lot dealing with this family and I will continue to pray for guidance and patience. But He has never left my side and I can feel His influence in my life. He is also teaching me to appreciate more fully everything I have in my family and He has blessed me bountifully. I pray that I can keep an attitude of humility and hope that you all can see His hand in your life as much as I can. :)

It was an uneventful weekend for the most part. My foot has still been hurting me so I stayed in a lot. Saturday was our first day alone with Cammie. Our first encounter was when Leah and I went to get some lunch and I pulled out a frozen pizza (the only food Anne ever specifically mentioned we could eat) and started reading the directions. Cammie, hearing us in the kitchen, naturally came to see what we were up to. Leah was getting out plates and cups, but she stormed right up to me and demanded to know what I was doing. "Why do you not ask Jessica?? You not ask if you can eat." "Anne told us we could eat the pizza Cammie." After muttering various things in French, she took the pizza out of my hands, set it on the table, turned on the oven, and left. Lovely girl. We went to Aundencia to print off Leah's train information so she could print them out at the station. I was going to go to the center with her, but had to go home because I couldn't walk too well. At about 5:30 I went to my second professional ice hockey match since I've been here. I've discovered I really like going to ice hockey games. It gets a little cold after a while but I'm so impressed with their skating skills and like it when they all crash into the wall. :) I went with my friends Peter and JC and we sat about the 4th row up. I think ice hockey is about the only sport that sitting closer isn't better. Went back to have a late dinner with Leah. Thank goodness Cammie left us alone. I made scrambled eggs and Leah toasted some bread, got out the ham, and we split a grapefruit. Not all bad. We worked on a homework project afterwards but weren't very productive. Perhaps it was because Cammie had decided to throw a party that night in her mom's absence. She had about 5 girls over and 3 guys and they were all smoking and the music was loud to say the least. I didn't really mind, but the smoke got so thick in my room (two floors up) that I had to open my window to ventilate and it got pretty cold. Ha. When Leah left my room to go down to hers, she said she walked past the living room and she sent me a message saying, "Dear Cripple,
I wish you could have walked downstairs and witnessed what I
just saw...Camille and her friends...hammered...singing the bear necessities in
french in a corner of the living room...with their drinks in the air.
They are currently trying to sing an english song....of which they know maybe a total
of 2 words...it's yogurt ...to the EXTREME
(yogurt is what the French call making up words when you don't know the correct words to a song. most of them yogurt to almost all American songs..which is mostly what they listen to. it's actually pretty funny)
So I'm actually pretty bummed I missed that. The next morning I got to meet some of her friends. That was a pleasure. I hung out in Leah's room until lunch, which we had the joy of sharing with a slightly hungover Cammie. When Leah left for Italy, I also left to go to Audencia..mostly to avoid being in the house alone with my best friend, but also because our jank internet wasn't working well. I got a little homework done but ended up spending most of my time skyping my parents. It was great to talk to them and my dad skyped me most of the night setting up new browsers on my computer. Yay for skype screen sharing. I've also taken to occasionally watching old Disney Channel movies on YouTube. I've covered Motorcrossed and Cheetah Girls. Qualityy. Then today Anne finally came home..I'm actually glad because she brought cereal to eat for breakfast. I told her that I hurt my foot and asked her if she had crutches. She said yes but she told me that I should go to the doctor. This would sound sweet, but she only thinks I should go to the doctors so I can get my own pair of crutches. Me borrow something of Anne's? Over her dead body. So now I'm going to a French doctor this afternoon so he can tell me that I twisted or strained my foot. Which I already know. BUT. Positive attitude. I need crutches just so I can stay off my foot for a while and definitely because I'm going to Berlin TOMORROW!!

Over-Ambitious

So! Now that I have that stinkin Paris blog out of the way, I can give a quick recap on this week! Monday I had class all day then French class at night. Tuesday was much better. After class all day Leah and I went over to Julia's house for dinner. I'm so excited for her to come to Butler next semester so I can return the favor! After a tour of the cutest apartment I have seen since coming to France, Julia, her roommate Claire, Leah and I had appetizers of raw carrots, cherry tomatoes, olives, bread and cheese. It was perfect. Then about an hour later, two of our friends that we met on the volleyball team came and dinner began (it was about 9:30 at this point..I don’t know how all the French are so skinny since they eat so late). We began with a fresh salad mixed in Balsamic vinaigrette, with homemade tapenades and some other pastry with melted cheese inside on top. Must admit, I’ve never had pastries on top of salad, but it was delicious. For the main course, Julia made salmon, some rice mixture that I can’t remember the name of, and green beans. I thought I was in heaven. I also thought I couldn’t possibly eat another thing…until the homemade tiramisu was brought out. I suddenly found plenty of room to eat a generous helping of that. But I love the fact that we left at 11:45 and not by choice, only because we had to catch the tram. Our dinner took over 3 hours and I wish that happened more back home. Wednesday I was supposed to go to volleyball, but I hurt my foot over the weekend and it’s not going away, so I had to skip unfortunately. Thursday I went to the game but didn’t play. Afterwards I spent so much time trying to figure out train tickets and lodging for Missy and I when SHE COMES TO VISIT!!!!! Ahhhh. Can NOT wait for that. Today we had school the first half of the day, but the room was so hot, the guy was so boring, over half our class wasn’t there because vacation starts, and he didn’t take attendance. All of these factors combined caused Leah and I to become rebellious and we skipped the next 3 hours of class to go to the bank and return some things I bought in Paris (I came to the realization that I can’t afford clothing here). That’s ok though because I want to use my money to travel! And travel I will. Leah and I bought our flights to Spain for our Spring Break. After Spain we go to London, and after I figure out my money situation, I may try to join people in Italy, which is actually where I would like to go the most. We shall see. I may go to the movies tonight just to get out of the house. I’ve stayed in the past couple of nights, mostly because of my foot, but I’m sick of not doing anything. Oh, and Anne is going away for the weekend. She informed me that there is frozen pizza that I am welcome to help myself to for dinner Saturday and Sunday. Not looking forward to that bit, but since she’s gone, can’t be that bad. J

Ok one last thought. Just went down for a dinner or not-fully heated frozen fish.. what? Can you say fish breast? Fish filets? I don’t know but they were gross. Anne sat across the table and ate steak. Ahhhhhhhh. Well I’m glad at least someone is enjoying my money. Not.

Anastasia

This past weekend was one of the best in my whole life. I love Paris. Not quite sure how else to put it. I apologize in advance for two things. First, that this will probably be incredibly long, don't feel the need to read it all. Second, I will in no way convey Paris in the way I want, nor will my descriptions do it justice. So to begin with, Thursday night. I spent the night in Heidi and Henriette's room. We woke up at about 6:20 (ugh.)on Friday and got ready and packed all of our things up. In the midst of the rush and packing, Henriette hard boiled some eggs, and we sat down to a breakfast of eggs, bread, cheese, and cereal. So European. We then however realized that we had 20 minutes until our train left and we had a ten minute tram ride to the station, let alone getting to the stop and waiting for the tram. So panic mode set in a bit, but we made it to the station and literally had to run to catch our train. About 3 minutes after we got on the train, the doors closed and we were on our way. What can I say, we like to live on the edge. We talked, played cards, and slept during our 2ish hour train ride. When we arrived in Paris, we had to buy metro tickets (which was a sham) and went to find our hostel/hotel. Still not sure which one it is. It was, however, located across the street from the grocery store and a Starbucks. Perfect! The hotel was pretty jank. There were four beds in our room, and the bedspreads were super ratty and uncomfortable, but the bathrooms were completely tiled and clean. Didn’t match the room at all, but I’m actually very grateful for that. We dropped off all our stuff and got some lunch at this adorable little French diner called Subway. Afterwards, we bought our tickets for the ballet on Saturday and headed down to a place where Heidi knew of a bunch of shops that surrounded a big shopping center. I bought a cheap but cute pair of boots and a cookbook. Both of those items cost me 13 euro. Thennn came the shopping center. Oops. Not going to specify how much I spent but let’s just say I lived extremely frugally the next two days (minus my coffee!). After a full day of shopping we returned to our hotel to drop off our things. Heidi, Anne, and Elias went out to eat at a restaurant and Mariread and I ran across the street to buy our dinner at the grocery store. I bought a box of cereal, which was smart as it lasted me all weekend and through many a meal, and a little sandwich. We had good girl talk etc in our room as we ate our high class meal and then got ready to go out when the others got back. Funny story though. We heard knocking and thought someone was at our door, so we went out to look and saw a guy just standing out in the hallway. Then a few minutes later we heard knocking again so we opened our door and saw the guy standing outside Elias and Heidi’s room. So we told him that they were out and would be back soon. So we were a little freaked out because we didn’t know what he was doing but just ignored it. Then about 5 minutes later we heard banging on the door next to us and then heard it open. Mariread grabbed a wine bottle and I flung open the door and him and another guy were standing there with the door open. This is how the conversation went between me and the guy (with Mariread looking very intimidating with her wine bottle and dress on behind me). “WHAT are you doing!? This is NOT ok.” “Um? This is my room. Ask the lady downstairs.” “Yea ok. No it’s not. You need to leave right now.” “No really, this is my room I promise.” At which point I walked past him into his room to check and see if Elias and Heidi’s things were in there. Well, turns out they were staying in the room on the OTHER side of us. Sooo, I yelled at a guy for going into his own room. All I can say is just try stealing my friend’s possessions. Just try. When they all finally came back we walked around to find a bar, but we only stayed for about an hour because it closed. On Saturday we all woke up around 10:30 and discovered we were supposed to leave by 11. So at 11:30 the cleaning ladies were not happy but I was because I went to Starbucks. We had a lovely coffee (and I ate my cereal) and planned our day. Our first stop was to take all of our things to our other hotel. Needless to say, we got off on the wrong stop, and after being lost for an hour in the cold rain, we finally found our hotel. This one was significantly nicer than the previous and only 4 euro more expensive. Riddle me that. After stashing all of our bags in a storage room, we set off to the Arc de Triomphe. BEAUTIFUL. There is such rich history found all over Paris. After the arc we walked down the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysees. There was literally a line (which everyone in Europe calls a queue) that probably had around 50 people waiting in it to get into the Louis Vuitton store. We ate an early dinner at a takeout Chinese place (delicious but wayy overpriced) and got ready to go to the ballet at the Opera! We saw the ballet, Caligula, and I cannot describe to you how breathtaking everything was. To begin with, the building itself had me almost beside myself. One of my first thoughts upon entering was, “this is where a scene in the movie Anastasia took place.” Juvenile, yes, but just thinking about how much history it held and people such as royalty attended the same place I was, I don’t know it was just awesome. Then to top it off, I saw some of the most talented dancers in the world perform a ballet that I probably should have researched before attending. Regardless of not following most of what happened, the fluidity of their movements and the gracefulness I witnessed is just impossible to explain. (I keep saying that but I honestly can’t put it down in finite form) Oh! It was also pretty amazing that we could see muscle definition in the lead dancer’s legs from 4 stories up..Heidi and I thought that was rather impressive) Basically what I’m trying to say is go to the stinkin ballet if you’re ever in Paris. We met up with Henrietta, her boyfriend, and some of his friends at a bar a couple streets away and then went to a two floor Irish pub. Quite impressive but too warm inside for my taste. Sunday our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. It was everything I thought it would be, but I should have expected some things that I didn’t. First, there were street sellers everywhere! Then a man in a gorilla costume jumped in one of our pictures (pretty funny actually) and tourists everywhere. Granted, I expected the last one, but I thought there would be a certain ambiance around it for some reason. However, it was wonderful being at such a world icon and I would go back without hesitation. After spending some time at the Eiffel Tower, the goal was to walk to the Louvre. Wellll, we walked for about an hour out of our way because we had absolutely no idea what we were doing, but it was good because I got to see the American Embassy. Again, the Louvre was awesommeee! Mona Lisa was eh, cool to see but still not quite sure what the fuss is about. If anyone would like to inform me as to why that’s so famous, all I’ve gotten is we can’t tell if she’s happy or sad or if it’s Leo himself. Fun fun. But I love love loved the painting of Napoleon’s Coronation by Jacques-Louis David. That is a painting worth preserving. And the history behind the painting is really interesting (thanks Mrs. Perry). You should definitely research it. We walked around about an hour more, although we determined you could spend a week there and still not see everything, and then left to meet Anne and Heidi. Not too much happened after that, we ate dinner at McDonalds (ew), got our things from the hotel, and yet again had to run to catch our train. About 2 minutes to spare after getting through the door. Excellent timing if I do say so myself. And that my friends, concludes my trip to Paris. Sorry it took a full week to update!

Lace, Peanut Butter, and Paris

Today's weather was absolutly gorgeous. It was high 50's and sunny all day. Automatically makes everything better. Wednesday was class all day again, but for lunch I got to go with Malika (french friend) and other people from class to a cutie sandwhich shop. I got a wrap and it was amazing and a brownie. yum! I mostly just sat and listened to them all talk, but Malika always translated and then talked to my in French extremely slow and I understood most of what she said. Makes me kinda excited though my French is no better than pathetic currently. After school Malika, her roommate Diana, and I went to the grocery store to pick up break, cheese, and wine for a bread, cheese, and wine party. go figure. We went to this girl's apartment and the assortment of cheese was incredible and we put this spread on top and basically it was the cutest girls night in the history of ever. Afterwards we all walked over to her neighbors apartment and crashed a birthday party for a girl most of us had never met. Typical. It was kinda what I imagined Europe house parties to be like. There were people with blue lipstick and white eyelashes and crazy outfits. Everyone was really friendly though and they had awesome birthday cake so I was happy :) I got to meet a bunch of new people from Audencia, so hopefully I will start knowing more people than just the other foreign students (not that I don't LOVE my other foreign students). We went to a bar afterwards where I saw some girls from the volleyball team and talked with them for a while. I slept over at Malika's and in the morning we had a breakfast of you guessed it, break and cheese. I also had an orange and yogurt. I felt very European. I then helped Diana make mashed potatoes. HOW I HAVE MISSED THEM!!!!! (for those of you who are not aware, mashed potatoes are one of my absolute favorite foods aside from sushi and chocolate) We then attended a hip hop class and then went to a cardio class. Had another awful Anne dinner and then packed for Paris. My wonderful parents sent me a great carepackage that got here yesterday..I was so excited. I think Anne expected me to open it in front of her..ahahahah. After packing I came over to the residence and showered and straightened my hair. I was planning on just waiting outstide the residence until someone came in and I could sneak in behind them, but I randomly bumped into Heidi at my tram stop (which is forever away from her stop) and she gave me her keys! Really random but made my trip a lot easier. Getting up at around 6 tomorrow morning to make our 7:30 train. Starbucks here I come!!!!!! What a sweet reunion that will be. Pray for a safe travel and stay :)

Ergo

French cooking galore! First on Saturday when our volleyball team made delicious treats for our get-together, last night and now again next week! Yesterday I had class all day and it was pretty disappointing as the class appeared to have potential when it first started out, but then the professor turned out to be a complete failure. He showed up to class (this was the second time we had him) an hour late and then tried keeping us after class. He also couldn't get his technology to work so Leah and I played Family Feud for about 45 minutes as he had someone else try and fix his computer. But the class was on internet marketing and when he was actually teaching I found most of what he had to say interesting. I mostly like how companies study consumers to find out behavioral patterns and trends on the internet. Some advertising companies watch what you type on the internet and based on key words they know which ads to send your way..no wonder I get so many ads about shoe sales! After class for 6 hours (well, about 4 really) I had my French class. I love learning the language and then hearing it around me, but I'm still at the stage where I'll hear a word, think "Hey! I just learned that word!" and then still not know what they're talking about because I only know I learned the word, not actually remember what it means. Alas, I will press on. Leah met me at the tram stop and we went to the grocery store to buy bagettes and cheese to take to our wonderful French friend's apartment. Malika and her roommate offered to cook dinner for us and another foreign girl from Columbia. It was to die for!! We had bread, cheese, and mini sausages for an appetizer, some wonderful baked tomato stuffed with meat mixture and rice for the main course, and apple crumble for dessert. Yumm. Today was class about international retail and marketing, the teacher is from England ergo his accent is heaven, and I really enjoyed learning about the different consumer trends in different counties and cultures. I think the part I enjoy the most is the amount of homework I don't have to do. I have a paper due tomorrow and it's the second one I've had to write in 5 weeks of school. I might drop out of Butler and move to France until I graduate. Except that wouldn't work because the non-exchange students actually do a lot more work than me. But I'm not complaining. Tonight I walked about 45 min to the center to buy some conditioner as my hair now loosely resembles straw and feels like it too, and to buy a new nose ring as mine fell out yesterday. That was a rather interesting experience as the man at the tatoo and piercing place didn't speak English and my French is, well, nonexistent. So it involved lots of hand motions and defeated smiles. The most I understood was when he said "I no pay attention in English class" and I responded with, "moi aussi." :) Other than that I should definitely be writing my paper and not this. Oh! But I met a girl at our volleyball match last Saturday. Her name is Julia and she is studying abroad at Butler next semester! She's incredibly sweet and offered to cook traditional French food for Leah and me next week sometime. Yay! So if anyone has any cheap, easy, traditional American food that we can start cooking in return for everyone's awesomeness, let me know! (and no, I do not want to cook hot dogs, mac and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly...mostly because they don't sell peanut butter here :( I need ideas!) Other than that Leah is leaving me tomorrow. It's her friend's 21st birthday tomorrow and she's studying abroad in Montpellier so Leah's going to surprise her. Alas I will have to eat dinner by myself with the fambam for two nights in a row...can't waiiit. But then I will go to PARIS and it will be fabulous. Now to write the unavoidable paper due tomorrow. I have an hour and ten minutes. Go.

Crepes!

Friday, Friday..what did I do two days ago? I know I didn't have class because it was a four day weekend (what a shame) but I can't remember so I'll start with yesterday. We had a volleyball tournament that lasted about 5 hours yesterday. We played teams from Bordeaux and Paris. We won all our games against the Bordeaux team, which is exciting because they're the best team we've played thus far and they were also undefeated..well not anymore..but it was a lot of fun. Then we sat out and watched while Bordeaux and Paris played eachother. Paris lost to Bordeaux and then we lost to Paris in our first game against them. Thankfully though we were able to pull it together and win the next two games to win the match and the tournament. Yay! It was probably thanks to our wonderful friends. Tons of our erasmus friends came to support us! :) After the games were over we rushed back to the house to shower and change because the volleyball team wanted to all get together and have a potluck of sorts that evening. We went to the grocery store and bought two baguettes, brie cheese, cider, and ingredients for crepes. We met up with our friend Claire, that we met on the volleyball team and dropped off our overnight bags as her roommate was out of town this weekend. Her flat is the cutest thing under the sun and directly behind the church that I've been going to the past couple of Sundays (minus last week). She had baked little pastry balls with cheese and ham and basil in them. Heaven. We walked over to Nicholas's apartment (on the guy's volleyball team) and met up with most of our team and some of their friends they brought along. It was so much fun. I think I learned more French last night than I have the entire time I've been here. We all just went back and forth asking how to say things and explain phrases and telling random stories and questioning lifestyles and it was just great. I'm so glad I'm making French friends haha Most people left at that point and it was down to Leah, Claire, Margo, Julia (who is actually studying abroad at Butler next semester! yay!!) and Nicholas. It was about 1:30 in the morning and they decided we should go out. Leah and I must be grandma's because we thought it was bedtime. But they assured us that this was the French way and we must experience their culture and go out..oh the things we say to sway people. So we went to a 'club'/bar called TexMex. Sketchyy and Leah and I volunteered to sit with the bags and coats for a while so everyone else could go dance. We were being lame..or self-sacrificing. I prefer the latter. Plus there were so many creepy men. ew. But it was actually a lot of fun. We got back to Claire's around 3:45 and if I hadn't had coffee before we went out, I would have fallen asleep in the club. Geez I need to step up my game. We went this morning to the church that we originally went to. It was great again and I'm starting to recognize every 30th word or so. Progress! Claire, Leah and I then went back to Claire's apartment where we learned how to make crepes from scratch. Before I brag, it was actually incredibly easy. But I'd never done it before so it was really exciting and extremely delicious. After eating my body weight in crepes, Leah and I walked to the tram stop and now have the afternoon to do homework, skype, and be lazy. Last thought. Leah and I, while waiting for trams, have now made up our own version of Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream to, Mr. Tram-man, bring us a tramm! More lyrics to follow.

Special K

Today was a day full of exercise, which is definitely for the best as most of my recent activity has just been walking around. I woke up and had a lovely bowl of sugary cheap chocolate cereal. Then I realized that the 19 year old daughter hides the good Special K berries cereal as she walked into the kitchen, got out her bowl and spoon, walked out opened a door somewhere, and walked back in with her box. I'm not bitter. I then went on a run to a park that's close to the house. It was absolutly beautiful weather and the park was small but had huge trees and a soccer field on the far side. I'm so excited for spring when everything blooms. After my run we went to the school cafeteria, as it's the cheapest lunch we can find. Afterwards we walked to Audencia and watched the boys volleyball game. They easily won and then Leah, Elias, and I played around with a volleyball for a while. Then I walked home and got ready to meet my wonderful new French friend, Malika, and her roommates for an exercise class in the center. It was at this building that also taught Arabic dancing and it was really neat to see all of the costumes that the women were wearing. We actually had a decent dinner of grilled cheese with ham and mustard, with our yogurt dessert. I decided to be brave and try the prune yogurt. Actually not bad at all. I would eat it again, though definitely not going to be a daily occurance. Leah and I then took a trip to the grocery store and I picked up some good cereal for the mornings when I'm not feeling chocolately. Excited!

Quit Complaining, You're in France

Today was bipolar of sorts. It started out wonderfully, got really horrible and then decent again. I got to sleep in AND still got a bowl of cereal (practically a miracle) this morning, rice crispies nonetheless. Good Day =1, Bad day = 0. Then Leah and I took the tram to the residence where we hung out with our Swedish girls and did homework for a while. (We had to discuss and draw what animal we are now, what animal we are in the workplace, and what animal we want to be in 5 years. I said I am currently an otter, and I said I'm a gorilla in the workplace, although they are described as spending the majority of their day eating, which is true, or at least I wish it was, but I don't know what that says about my work ethic.. and I said I wanted to be a reindeer in 5 years. They are described as energetic and spirited, seemingly shy yet curious about their environment, they'd rather stroll than wander, and they are hard to catch but gentle when domesticated. Not sure about the last part but all I know is I want a pet reindeer now.) So after my strenuous homework, Henerietta made us spaghetti with meatballs (keep in mind she's from Sweden), cherry tomato & cucumber salad, and cheese for dessert. YUMMM. And they eat their spaghetti with ketchup and then they had this sort of jam/jelly stuff that they put on their meatballs. It was delicious. I never thought jam substance would be to die for on meatballs, but it was amazinggg. And I had vegetables. That alone almost trumps the bad part of my day coming up. Good day = 2, Bad day = 0. We all then took the tram to school, and a small yet significant thing happened on the tram. All my friends got seats on the tram and they offered to let me sit on their laps, but it wasn't a big deal so I just stood next to them. Well a guy sitting across from them stood up and offered me his seat. Not earth-shattering, but I have yet to see anyone do that on the tram except once a girl got up to give an old lady her seat. I don't know, I love random acts of kindness. So this seems like an awesome day right? Well it was. Then came the class from down under. It was a class in a computer lab and the computers are older than dirt and work slower than shifting molasses. The professor not only mumbled the entire class, but talked softly on top of that. Anddd, his accent made it nearly impossible to understand him. Now I commend him for learning a second language, it's something I don't know and I admire people who can speak more than one, but! speak up man! So we were 'learning' some mathematical shenanigans on the computer and were supposed to work on an assignment but literally the entire class had no idea what was going on. So during our break, Leah and I went up to talk to him. Well, come to find out that he was trying out a new learning style. Let me explain. Two days ago we received an email from him with 6 documents and 2 powerpoints. The 6 documents ranged from 20-70 pages long and one of the powerpoints had over 120 slides, all of information I have never seen in my life. Well, apparently this new learning style is that we read all the material he sends us and we come to class with "any questions we might have". Um yes, everything. So needless to say, I have never been more frustrated sitting through a class. I still couldn't tell you anything about what I supposedly learned today. I digress. But ughh. He just frustrated me. So, Good day = 2, Bad day = 1. So this evening I spent my time writing a paragraph in French about cheese. Don't ask me why, but I have to memorize it and recite it in front of all my fellow beginner French students (aka all my wonderful Chinese friends). So despite Camille (19 yr old daughter who literally despises me, no, I'm not exaggerating) yelling at me at dinner tonight, it was actually a lovely evening. So all in all, it was a good day. I'm just whining, so I apologize. I will try to keep that behavior minimalistic. In the meantime, I will dream of the care package my incredible parents sent me today!! Yay!

SportsSportsSports

Micah 6:8 - "On te l'a enseigne, o homme, ce qui est bien et ce que l'Eternal attend de toi: c'est que tu te conduises avec droiture, que tu prennes plaisir a temoigner de la bonte et qu'avec vigilance tu vives pour ton Dieu."

Tonight is the Super Bowl! After being told numerous times that the game wouldn't be broadcasted on TV here, two people confirmed that it will be played on channel W9..whatever that means. Don't care though because I'm going to find it. For my Super Bowl feast, I bought a bag of chips and then went across the street to a candy shop and bought some jelly beans and other such trinkets of deliciousness. It's not taco dip and veggie trays (unfortunately) but it will do! Yesterday was very eventful. Leah and I met up with some friends at Audencuia to watch the men's volleyball team. They were amazing and so much fun to watch. Afterwards we met up with our Irish friends at the ice skating rink to watch a professional hockey game! It was so cool, and very cheap to get into. Favorite! Leah and I split a hotdog as a snack, and insead of a bun, they put the hotdogs inside a baguette. hahah so cute! It was actually delicious and a nice change of pace. After the hockey match we grabbed dinner at Subway (first fresh? vegetables I've had in a month!) and went over to the residence to hang out for an hour or so. Today I saw a man farmers blow while riding his bike. amusing. Then he almost rode straight into a pole. even more amusing. But far more important than that - Leah, Kevin, and I tried out a new church today that's a little bit closer to our house. They had nuns! First time I've ever been to a church with nuns, but the incense started to clog my head a little by the end of the service. I think I like the first church better, but we're going to try a couple more before we settle down into one for the rest of the time we're here. Had Subway again for lunch (no judging. it's cheap). I did an hour and a half of yoga from a tape Leah has and let me tell you what. that mess is hard. Had an interesting dinner of chicken and twice heated canned vegetables and now I am looking forward to my midnight feast and a good football game. Go Packers!

Slackin

Well I officially fail at writing this week. It's not that I've been especially busy or have a good excuse, although I could make one up if you'd like..But that would require effort and I feel I will just continue my trend of being lazy this week. Maybe next time. I had class all day Monday and Tuesday. Monday was my last negotiating class, and it has been my favorite class by far. We had to do role play negotiations and the first one I got worked over. The guy I was negotiating with was horrible and I only got the minimum of what I wanted. Then on the next negotiation, since I was ticked, I went to town on these two Chinese girls. I got most of the things I wanted, although no worries, I did focus on win-win. However, afterwards I felt bad so I gave both of them hugs and apologized for if I had been too mean/not very cooperative. haha I had fun. Tuesday was my brand class with my teacher from London. Love love love their accents. Brilliant. The last half of the class though I wasn't paying attention because I met this French girl sitting next to me and she told me all about Paris and all the good local places to go..which is awesome because I'm going there in 2 weeks!!!! ahhhhahah. yesssss. I am currently browsing this couch surfing website, but if anyone knows anyone in Paris who would want to host me and my 3 friends there for a weekend, let me know! Tuesday night we went to La Maison, which is The House in French, and it's this really cute bar that has lots of different rooms and they're all decorated as different rooms of a house..in 70's decor. Super cute. I tried this cherry beer, forget what it's called, but I actually liked it. Then since I'm poor I drank free water the rest of the night :) Let's see. I'm getting old, my memory is slipping.  So Wednesday Leah and I spent the day trying to finalize everything for our bank account. Finallyy we got everything worked out..2 weeks after we started this process. Everything here moves slower than glacier pace I'm convinced. We went to a club called TexMex that night and basically just danced for a couple hours. There was this old couple dancing in the corner that was..what's the word? Disturbing. But for some hilarious reason we couldn't stop watching them. At one point he picked her up, upside down, and was twirling her. Hard to describe, but I really can't tell if I'm impressed or scarred. Yesterday, Thursday, we had a volleyball match at a different business school, which we won! We have a match next Saturday, which I'm told if we win, there is a tournament in Nice (south of France) that we get to play in. Not sure on details but pretty sure I'm bringing my A-game Saturday. Yuup. Then we bought a discount train card at the train station and our tickets to Paris. :) Last but not least we all went ice skating at the rink 5 minutes from our house. The Canadians, the Irish, the Americans, and the Germans showed everyone who was boss at skating..by letting them school us all. No worries, it was still a blast and I am sore today. good times. Class later today and who knows what tonight!