Home!

I haven't posted in a while.  I guess I've just been busy being home.  It's really nice to not be in someone else's home or a hotel anymore.  I like to have a little bit of control over my living space...

Sometimes I get this really heavy feeling, like maybe I'm not doing the right thing.  This is pretty serious, what I'm doing...  There's a lot of stuff involved in it. A lot of big stuff.  I guess I'm just worried about making a big mistake...

On the other hand, I see these people who say things like "I wish I had done that" or "If only I'd done this while I had the chance" and I don't want to be them.  I like to say that I have no real regrets in my life. I don't feel like I've done anything that I seriously regret doing, and I don't feel like I missed out on doing anything that I seriously wish I'd done.  Even if I moved to Europe and decide that I didn't want to live there forever after all, that wouldn't be a regret because it would be a learning experience.  It would be a different story if I just stayed here, I think....

Blah, blah. Blah blah blah.

I need a job.

Florida.

Well, here I am. Back in the States. I'm exhausted. It's only 8:30 right now but I feel like I should be sleeping already. It doesn't help that last night we were up until two in the morning. I feel like I should have gone to bed hours ago.

So, first time in Florida. Not really my cup of tea I guess. To start with, it's just too hot. It's December, I don't want hot in December. Grandma and Grandpa's house is nice though. Tomorrow we're going to Disney World and then Christmas Eve we get to see my cousin Sarah. What a busy week we have.

I'm fairly certain that I had a lot more to write. I'm so tired that I can't remember, though.

It's just so weird to be back in the US. It's weird to look around and see so many enormous vehicles. It's weird that tax is added at the register rather than included in the shelf price. It's weird that the towns are so big, with a lot of open space. It's even weird that the toilets have so much water in them. I'm not used to this stuff anymore, and that's (like I said) really weird. I don't feel like those things really stood out that much to me when I got to Europe. But I guess I got used to it...

I want internet. I hate not having internet. I think I should go to bed...

How quickly things change...

Four months ago, I sat in an airplane at John F. Kennedy airport in New York, waiting for the plane to take off and fighting back tears.  I didn't want to leave home.
It's hard to believe that today, I can be the same person, sitting in an airplane in Amsterdam trying not to cry again.  I don't want to go home.

I don't feel any different than I was six months ago, or a year ago. But at the same time, I know I've grown a lot during my time here.  I know they say there's no way you can come out of studying abroad unchanged, and I have to agree that being in Europe these past four months has irreversibly changed my life.   It's so strange to think of all the people I've met who I probably won't see or talk to again, so really they were just there to be a part of my experience.  And of course I have to come back as soon as I can, because I'm not the kind of person who can be content with just coming here and then returning home and having stories to share.  I still have more growing to do, I guess.

So for tonight, I'm staying in Paris. I've had a wonderful day (please excuse the sarcasm leak, we're working on fixing that).  I love traveling and I love flying but I hate airports.  I particularly hate checking bags.  I have three bags: my big suitcase, a medium duffel bag, and a backpack.  My backpack has to be carry-on because it has my laptop in it.  When I got to the airport in Amsterdam, the lady who checked my bag told me that I could take my duffel bag as carry-on too, because it was light enough.  She checked my big suitcase, but it was overweight so I had to pay for that.  Then, when I went to go through security, this guy stopped me and told me we had to go weigh my carry-on bags.  And with my two bags combined, my carry-on was too heavy. So I had to check the duffel bag after all. Luckily, they did not charge me for having a second bag. What a pain, this business of checking bags. I'm tired of it. However, none of my flights for today or tomorrow are connecting flights, so I'm going to have to check them at least one more time. Hopefully I can talk them into checking them all the way through to my final destination tomorrow, but if not I'll have to re-check them again in New York.  I've rearranged some stuff between my big suitcase and my duffel bag, so hopefully that will do to make my suitcase not be overweight.  Tomorrow, we will see...

Now, I'm starving.  I had breakfast this morning because I got up way too early, and then at the airport I went by Starbucks for a giant caramel mocha and this teriyaki beef sandwich.  I guess I should pay more attention to labels because I didn't realize that teriyaki beef was going to come with cucumber and wasabi mayonnaise (and green onions but I don't mind those) but in the end it wasn't a problem, the beef part was good...  There's a restaurant across the street called Hippopotamus and I'm debating on whether or not I should go try it.  I've seen them around before and I've looked at the menu online but I'm not sure if I'm interested. But I'm very hungry...  There's a restaurant in the hotel but it doesn't sound exciting.

We will see. I probably won't post again until I'm back in the US.  Wow, can't believe that's tomorrow.

Here comes fun...

So today is my last day of vacationing in the Netherlands. It's very sad.  Tomorrow starts my two joyful days of travel.  I'm not overly excited for that.  I have to get up fairly early to grab a tram (or more likely, a bus) to Den Haag Centraal station and then from there, take a lovely train to Amsterdam, where I have a 12:30 flight to Paris.

Hopefully I will be able to locate the post office in the Charles de Gaulle, as I have some things to send places. (I forgot to leave my host family's house key.  I feel bad.)  It's a lot more expensive to send things to Europe from the States than it is from within Europe...  I was going to try to find a post office in the Netherlands to do that but it seemed like too much work... However, I land in Paris around 13:45 and my next plane does not leave until the next morning around 8:30 so I believe I have time to find a post office. I read that there is one in the airport, it's just a matter of finding it.

So after leaving Paris at 8:30 in the morning, I will be landing in New York around 10:30 in the morning. I'm going to be traveling back in time!  If only the plane would fly faster, then I could really be traveling back in time.  I don't have the slightest clue what I will do in New York to occupy my time because my next plane from there doesn't leave until 18:45.  Such long days of travel.

I'm really hoping I can check my bags all the way from Amsterdam to Florida.  If I can, that would be awesome. I went and withdrew some money today though, just in case I can't. I don't know if my card will work at the airport so I would rather be safe than sorry. I will try my card first, pay with cash if that doesn't work...  Checking bags is expensive. I have two bags.  In Europe, that's first bag free, second bag 55 euros.  In the US with Delta, I believe it'll be $25 for the first bag and $35 for the second.  I really hope they aren't overweight. If they were for the first flight, the lady didn't make note of it. I thought they must have been, though. Perhaps she was just being nice.

And after all that, I will be in Florida. Yay, Florida! I know it will definitely be warmer than here in the Netherlands. But only for a short time, before I go to Idaho and freeze to death.  I became far too accustomed to the warmer weather in southern France... I have to re-adjust. It'll be fun.

So, I really didn't do much today, honestly.  I slept in today (until 10:30.  Lazy bones). Then I went downtown for a couple hours and took a nice long walk there (and searched for an ATM) but then I came back to the hostel and decided I'd just relax some.  Tonight I have to make sure all my stuff is packed in a plane-friendly way.  Tomorrow I'm going to eat breakfast! I hope.  If not, that's alright too.

I LOVE IT HERE!

Look, I'm in there! Can you see me?  Can you, can you????  Don't worry, neither can I!  But it was so awesome!  Hold on, I have another one. (I didn't take either of these two pictures, Jenny found them online.)

There in the front with the blue and brown hat?? That's Tessa. Jenny and I were right behind her. We were in the front for Snow Patrol!  And Gary Lightbody, the lead singer? We got to touch his hand. We had some much fun!

So I took a few pictures for everyone who wants to see, I'm just waiting for them to upload. Give me a minute.

At this moment, I'm very happy with all these decisions I've been making. I really do like it here in the Netherlands. And it's winter!  I bet the summer will be even better.  The Hague is huge, the school is huge too, but it's a nice place, it seems.  It might be a challenge finding a place to live but maybe a challenge is what I need!  I can handle it.  And one of these days, I'll learn Dutch. I will probably learn to understand it before I learn to speak it but hey, that'd still be progress.  I've already caught on to a few words and phrases here and there.  I'm a linguistics nerd, it's only a matter of time.

So I have a couple pictures, let's see what we have.

This is one side of the university, courtesy of my own lovely photography.  No big deal, I suppose.

Another side of the school. Yes, it is surrounded by water. One of the many things I love about Europe, there is water everywhere. I love water!  And a school with skyways.  Yeaaaa.  Such a fancy school.

Ummm. Let's see, what else do I have?

The beach!  Scheveningen.  You know, the town whose name I can't say.

Drawings in the sand. Really sweet.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!

Yes, we stood around waiting for 5 hours to watch Snow Patrol sing six songs! AND IT WAS AWESOME!  

Not to mention that being in the front is also very awesome. NOT TO MENTION WE WERE ON NATIONAL TELEVISION!  It snowed and rained all over us while we were standing there. It was packed and crowded and we were squished.  It couldn't have been any better. Pretty sure nothing can top that.

Except these hats.  Ten euros to charity, so worth it!
And my cursed Scandinavian eyes.  Thank you, Grandpa!

Oh yea, almost forgot.  The video where I'm on national television.

Coldddd

Okay, I know this temperature is nothing compared to at home. But I've been in southern France. You have to give me a break. It didn't get colder than 4 or 5 degrees the whole time I was there (or, uh, 40 degrees fahrenheit) and it especially rarely even got that low.  It usually stayed around 10-12 (50-55F)  Here, it's been raining all the time and at the moment it's 2 degrees out.  It's so cold!!  I know, just last week I say that it was -11(C) at home, so I have to stop complaining about here because it'll be colder in two weeks, in Idaho.

In other news, I'm tired. Lots of walking happened today.  It's okay, it's good for me.  I'm pretty sure of that. I'll let you know after I can feel my feet again.  We also went to the beach.  They have very nice beaches here. Regardless of wind and rain.  The beach has all these colorful teeny tiny shells, in abundance.  I don't think I've ever seen that on a beach... Only small pieces of bigger shells, and not nearly as many.

I'm seriously freezing. Could it be any colder in my room?  I chose to stay in a 24-bed room because it was cheapest, but there are only two other people in here beside me.  I've named them.  Snorey guy and sleeps-til-noon guy.  Their names are self-explanatory. I'm not sure who left the window open but it's still open and it's so cold in here.  Maybe it wouldn't be so cold if I was in my bed with blankets on me but there's no outlet over there to charge my laptop.

I went downstairs to buy a drink from the drink machine.  There are five options. Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, Minute Maid, or Heineken.  The Heineken has two paper arrows pointing to it, and the arrows have the word "beer" written on them in probably 20 different languages.  Also, it said Minute Maid apple juice but it gave me orange juice and it's really gross orange juice, too....

Apparently, tomorrow I am going to a Christmas market and then a Snow Patrol concert. Yay!  Should be fun.  I think I'll go to Starbucks too. I could use a warm drink.

I'M LEARNING DUTCH!

Well.  I had a good day today.  Lots of exploring.  I found a lot of things. Found the right tram. Found the beach (but couldn't get to it).  Found the school. Found the Subway by the school.  Found Jenny (or she found me).

Then we took a walk, where we found a movie theater and bought tickets to see New Year's Eve, then we walked across the street to eat at McDonald's until it was time for the movie.  New Year's Eve was a very good movie, it was pretty funny.  Then we went back to McDonald's for McFlurries.  Then we walked to the train station so I could take a bus and Jenny could take a train.  The end.

I believe tomorrow we're going shopping (but I'm not buying anything because my suitcases are stuffed), and we might try to find a part of the beach that is accessible.  They are doing construction on the dikes at the place where I tried to go. Maybe other parts of the beach will be open...  I mean, I know the dikes in the Netherlands are important, so they can do construction on them whenever they want. BUT I WANTED TO SEE THE BEACH!!!

I guess it's all the better that way. I might not have been able to stay on the beach very long anyways. It was super rainy and windy by the ocean.  Maybe tomorrow will be better. I doubt it, but that's okay.

Alright! I wanna make it down for my free breakfast tomorrow! Goodnight!

BEACH!!!

Good morning!  I woke up this morning (the seagulls woke me up) and discovered the reason why every time I woke throughout the night, I couldn't feel my nose.  The window is open. Don't you people know it's almost freezing temperatures out there?

In other news, I think I'm going to take a walk to the beach here shortly.  Then I'm going to go find the university and explore a little.  It's enormous, I'll probably get lost.  It'll be fun.  Rumor has it there's a Subway by the university... I gotta find that, for sure.  And the enrolment centre (my computer's spellcheck doesn't like British English...) so I can show them my ID and prove that I am who I say I am. Then I think I'm done with the whole "enrolling" thing...

And since I know that's what everyone always wants, today I might do a little wandering and take pictures.  Lots of pictures.  Maybe. If I feel like it.  I might just take four million pictures on the beach and then forget everything else. I like the beach... Did you know that?

So I guess I just don't have a lot to say because all I've seen of this place is a train station, busy streets at night, and a hostel.  I just felt like posting, that's all.  SO THERE!  One thing I do know, the Hague is a lot bigger than Amsterdam because it is a lot more spread out... Though Amsterdam is technically a bigger city because it is more densely populated.

Okay. That's all for now. Bye!

Airplanes and Airports

I left my umbrella on the airplane. I don't know why I'm so upset over it, it was just an umbrella. I am upset though.  I know, I could just go buy another umbrella.  But it's not the same...  I guess it's the fact that, it's not just an umbrella, it's a memory.  My mother bought me that umbrella when we were in Paris together.  I know, umbrellas never last forever anyways... I'm still really mad at myself over it.  I just want my umbrella back...

I'm hanging out in the airport in Lyon for a couple hours until my next flight.  I feel like I'm going to be doing that a lot this week. Oh by the way, checking two bags is a pain.  It scared me to death when the lady in Pau looked at my bags and said, "You can't take two, you can only have one."  What do you mean I can only have one!  I already have two!  Then she said you have to pay to have two.  Well duh, lady. I already knew that.  Thankfully, the airport in Lyon has some nice internet for me to use. I'm pretty sure the airport in Paris doesn't... And I'm also pretty sure that JFK airport in New York doesn't. And those layover are even longer than this one here.  It might just be a nightmare. Yay!

I got my last look at the Pyrenees from the window of an airplane earlier. It made me extremely sad.  Same with looking around Pau and thinking, "Wow, this is the last time I'm seeing this place."  And then there's the fact that I won't see my host parents ever again. I mean, it wasn't really a tearful goodbye on anyone's part but still.  Oh, and I forgot to leave their house key.  I'm not sure if it's a good idea to send those in the mail but I don't know any other way to get it back to them.  I was in such a hurry to get out of there (the taxi meter was running) that I didn't even think about it.

I'm happy to be leaving France. No matter where I go, I'm not in France.  Yea, I guess in a few ways I'm excited to go home. I wish I could stay in Europe instead. That probably wouldn't be the smart thing though.  I'd just want to go places, and then I'd run out of money.

Six days and then homeward bound!  See you soon Mom and Dad! And Alyssa! And Grandma and Grandpa!  And lots of other people too.

Time to go!

Tomorrow I will be on a plane headed to the Netherlands. A week from today, I will be on a plane headed back the United States. And two weeks from today, I'll finally be going home. It's hard to believe the semester is really over. What do I do now??

I know, I shouldn't be saying that. I already have a plan. I know what I'm doing now. No matter what, I always have a plan. Though, this is by far my favorite plan. I'm actually looking forward to it for once.

My hostel for the next 4 nights is on the beach. I love the beach, but I'm not so sure about the beach when it's near freezing temperature. I'm sure it'll be pretty to look at either way. I gotta take lots of pictures! I know, that doesn't really mean much when I say that I've taken tons of pictures lately but no one has seen them but me because I haven't posted them.

In other news, either my host dad thought we were going to starve tonight or they were trying to over-stuff me for my last meal with them. It wasn't big and fancy or anything, just a lot of stuff. First he told me to help myself to the pâté and bread. Then he offered me salad. Then there was this vegetable cake thing that reminds me of quiche a little (but it's different. I don't know how to explain it).  After that, a little pizza... After that, a big ham and cheese croissant.  I ate everything he offered me. I ate too much.

I'm all packed. My room is clean. I have a taxi lined up for tomorrow. Mango's on my bed visiting me for probably the last time. I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight. I guess I'm ready. I can't believe I'm leaving already.  I'm so ready to leave. I think I've said all this already. But it's still true.

Yay!

3 more days!

I took pictures Saturday. I'll post them eventually but right now I don't feel like it. I'm lazy, and posting pictures takes forever. Plus I have to create special links for all of them so that they'll work on my blog.  It's tough stuff.  What a hard life I have, right?

I have two more days of classes, and then a pretty test, and then I get to get on an airplane and get the heck out of Dodge.  All I have to worry about is missing that airplane... It'll be fine. I think.

Once again I have not much to say.  I'm excited to go back to the Netherlands this weekend. It's going to be fun.  I have to decide when I'm going to want to come back (to move there), also... At the beginning of the summer when Mom and Dad move north, so I can find a job there before school starts?  Or the beginning of August, so I can sit around up north in Grangeville like a bum for two months? Well gee, when you put it that way...

My computer needs some tender loving care... I don't know how I have such bad luck with computers. I'll admit, I wasn't very nice to my last computer.  But I have no idea what I've done to my laptop to make the fans kick into overdrive every time I open it, the minute it comes on. It hasn't even started doing anything yet, it can't possibly need fans!!  It's so loud.  And in the past two days, it's randomly gone into hibernation 4 times to 'prevent overheating' (so said the screen when I turned it back on) and I'm just a little frustrated with the whole thing.  Poor computer.

Anyways, I'm exhausted. Goodnight.

Happy Saturday!

Last night, I opened a piece of chocolate and the inside of the wrapper told me, "Il n'y a rien plus triste qu'une vie sans hasard."  There is nothing more sad than a life without risk.  I kind of needed that, chocolate wrapper, thank you.

I guess I've been a little worried about these decisions I've been making lately. It's not that I haven't really thought about them, I am pretty sure I know what I'm doing.  I feel completely confident that I know how to handle that kind of thing now.  I believe six months ago I wouldn't have felt even halfway capable of doing what I want to do.  So in that respect, I know I'll be okay.  There's just a lot to worry about...

Also, I really can't wait. It feels so long from now. Maybe the time will pass quickly. It seems like last summer passed quickly, while looking forward to coming to France. Actually, I don't really know what happened to that summer. Are you sure it existed?  If it did, it really seems like it was a million years ago (or perhaps more).



Now I'm leaving France in 5 days. The time here has passed really quickly too... I didn't want to pack everything until a day or two before I leave but I couldn't help it. I'm mostly packed up. I have stuff that I don't want, but I don't know what to do with them. I don't feel right throwing away perfectly good clothing and shoes, but I can't wear them because they are too big for me.  I could go donate them but the place to donate is way out of town and I can't get there by myself...  I'm not really sure.  Maybe I can take them to the Netherlands with me before I go home and ask the people at my hostel if there is somewhere nearby where I can donate unwanted clothing.  Then I'll only have to drag them around with me as far as the Netherlands.  Either way, there's no way all my stuff is going to fit in just one suitcase so I will be paying to check a second bag...  Maybe I could just make them a little easier to drag around though...

I don't know what I'm going to do in Paris. I will get to Paris at 1:30 in the afternoon on the 20th and I leave Paris at 8:30 in the morning the next day.  I don't want to go all the way into the city but I don't know how costly the hotels out by the airport are.... That's an awful long time to spend sitting around the airport with my bags though. And I know I wouldn't get any sleep.

Christmas!

Oh. My god.

So, I felt a little bad today because I skipped all my classes. I probably shouldn't have done that.  I can't even say I made up for it by doing something productive--I stayed home most of the day.  However, around 4pm I decided to go downtown and find something to eat and maybe wander around a bit.  I should have taken a camera, but I forgot.

This little town that I am living in. It is so cute!

I never really paid much mind to the speakers mounted around town above the storefronts, maybe every 3 to 4 stores along the side streets, and on all the light poles down the main street.  Today, when I got downtown, there was music playing. Everywhere you walked you could hear it because of those nice evenly-spaced speakers all over downtown.  It was so cool.  At first it was just random music but then when it started to get darker it was all Christmas music and all the Christmas lights place around town lit up. That was the point that I wished I had my camera. I'm going back tomorrow, I hope the weather is nice again (it was only 60 degrees out) so I can take pictures of all the pretty downtown-ness.  The only thing that the image was missing was snow.  It would have been perfect.  Even so, I loved it.

I probably walked around for about 2 hours before I decided to go catch a bus home.  Oh I also bought a book at the fnac first. A French book.  It was 7 euros, I thought that was pretty cheap.  Now I'm reading it.  I had a pretty good day, if I do say so myself.  And it's Friday! Got the weekend to do nothing (well, other than going downtown tomorrow to take pretty pictures).

And then I have 3 days of classes left, and a big test Thursday. Wow. I'M SO EXCITED!

Long two weeks...

These next two weeks are going to pass extremely slowly. I have a lot to worry about.

I apologize for that post last night. I've been trying to keep things like that out of my blog. It really doesn't belong here.

Luckily I only have about a week of classes left and then I have a lovely test.  And then, as suggested by Andrea, I'm going back to the Netherlands. Yay!  I can't wait.

And then home. Well, first Florida. Never been to Florida.  Should be interesting.  I can't wait for Christmas, and I can't wait to go home and relax a bit (rather than being in this house here...) and I can't wait to see my family and my poor cat and rabbit.  And then I can't wait to come back to Europe.

Yea, I don't really have much to say today...


P.S. To my apparent readers from Russia, I don't really understand.  But I have 75 page views from Russia so I guess if you really like my blog that much, continue reading.

24.

24 pounds I have lost here in France. I've been here for 13 weeks.  I worry about going back to the US. I don't want to gain it all back. I'm going to have to go on daily long walks or something.

I guess Europe just sits well with me...  Even in London, I expected to have gained a bit back because I felt like I ate like a pig in London. But even there I lost weight.  With all the bread that I eat in France, I should be gaining weight. I really love it.  Someone suggested it was all the walking, but I really don't do that much walking.  I walk between home and the bus stop, that's not far. Then between the bus stop and the school buildings, also not very far. Occasionally I might go downtown and walk around a bit but never very much and definitely not very often.  Of course, there have been some of my weekend excursions where I did a lot of walking.  Paris, London, Amsterdam and Carcassonne all definitely killed my legs.  That's not much though...  I don't know.



And as a closing for this, I just want to tell you that I'm extremely sick and tired of this family that I am living with.  I get it, I'm not the perfect person they expect me to be. I'm really tired of being yelled at for being myself. Not even 10 minutes ago, my host mother walked into my room and started yelling at me because she doesn't understand why I bothered wasting my parents' money (MY PARENTS DIDN'T PAY FOR THIS, LADY, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT. I PAID FOR IT. MY MONEY.) in coming here to do things I could do at home because I don't talk to anyone, I don't ever go downtown, I don't go anywhere. I don't understand how she has any right to say any of that stuff.  Up until this point, I've literally been gone every single weekend visiting other cities and other places. How do you come off saying I don't go anywhere?  And you know what, after a long day of 2-3 hour classes (Not to mention our nice long 2 hour lunch breaks where I sit around and talk to people or go downtown. You know, those things that she says I never do.) I can't help it if I just want to come home.  I can only tell a person so many times that I don't like to go out with friends 24/7 before I'm just really tired of this.  I'm tired of all of it.   I don't care how much of a waste you think I've made, lady.  None of this feels like a waste to me.  The only thing that feels wasted is the fact that I had to live in your home.  You know one of the main reasons I've tried to go somewhere every weekend is because then I don't have to be HERE.

I'm just done. I've been trying and I can't try any more.  I've reached my limit with these people. I am going to talk to Ryan and Robina tomorrow and if they can't get me out of here I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't be here anymore.

Oh boy.

I am done with being here. I just want to throw that out there. I am so done with this family that I have to live with.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I've suddenly been doing a lot of things that a lot of people think are absolutely insane... Alright, maybe I am a little insane, but I feel that I am well within my reason.

I cancelled my spring semester in Spain.  There were a lot of reasons that I wanted to go, and a lot of reasons why I didn't want to go.  It does make me sad that I don't get to live on the beach in southern Spain.  And I'm definitely more than a little sad that my sister doesn't get to come visit me there.  Also, I was really looking forward to learning about Spanish culture and especially try out some Spanish food.  On the other hand, I have been thinking more and more lately that maybe I just don't want to study Spanish that badly.  It would be a really fun experience, yes.  But it's a lot of money that I could be putting to a better use.

Speaking of which...  I'm in the process of enrolling at a Dutch university to start in the fall--meaning that I'm quitting my school in the States and starting over.  I guess I just decided that I do really want to move to the Netherlands, and there is no better time than now. I don't need to explain myself or justify that because it's my life and they are my choices, but I do know that quite a few people think I'm insane for it.  The point is, I've already screwed up a lot with my schooling at Boise State.  The only classes that I have actually passed are my language classes and one calculus class. They don't transfer to the school in the Netherlands.  But I don't need them to.  I want to start over.  I want to start right.  Without failing classes and making mistakes.  If I try to finish school in the US first, I feel like I would really be wasting time and money.  And, as my mother pointed out, it's better to make a move like that when I am young and do not have too many personal belongings or things like that to worry about.  Moving into an apartment in Boise for 3 years to finish school would mean I would need to obtain a lot more personal belongings...  The more I have thought about this, the more I really feel like I am doing the right thing.

I'll be heading home in sixteen days. I'm so ready to leave France. I'm very sad that I have to leave Europe though.  I do like it here... My host family has kind of ruined this for me.  I will be back though!  We're officially done on the 15th and then I fly home on the 21st. I want to find something to do for those days in between but I'm not sure that I could... It would be cool to be able to go to Italy or one of the places I haven't been yet, but I don't want to spend that much money and I have no one to go with. I might just be stuck here in Pau, with my host family...

I'm craving food right now. Particularly because I'm starving.  I would like a Spanish tortilla, but I also want cheesy hashbrowns (or hashbrowns with gravy), but the thing I want most overall is black beans and rice.  I feel like it's been a million years since I've had black beans and rice.

Long story short....

Here I'd been wondering what I would do with this blog when I come home from Europe and my life gets boring again.  It would just die, I guess?  That's a little sad.

Maybe I'll just move to Europe... Solves that problem.

The thing is... I believe I told a few people before I left that I just really want to do something that will dramatically change my life.  And dramatically change me, as a person.  I thought study abroad itself would do that for me, but I guess I just don't feel like it's big enough.  Yes, I feel like I've changed, but not so much that I wouldn't just fall right back into my old self when I get back home.

I don't know, it's a little difficult to explain my reasoning behind this...

I have a lot to think about still.

Final Countdown?

Yea, so I'm allowed to change my mind right?

I think I'm going to drop my Spanish major to a minor.  So that I can attempt to finish in time by focusing on the French part.  I don't want to be in school for a million years trying to finish.

I've been trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with a Spanish/French major. I really don't know that there's a lot you can do with that in the US.  I know, I could go teach at a high school, but doesn't that seem a little anticlimactic?

I know I said before that I would never want to move to Europe, and in part I'm still saying that. But I think I was being too general. I think that I would hate to live in France, or Spain for that matter. (Or England. Wow, that was expensive.)  On the other hand, moving to Europe could be a really good experience...

It's something to think about.

It just feels like such a waste to spend all this time studying in Europe and learning two different languages just to go home and be a teacher or a translator in my home country.

As soon as I have the chance, I'm going to go talk to the career center at school (in the States) about career options abroad...

I'll be getting on a plane to head home three weeks from tomorrow.

Amsterdam

Okay. I admit it. I went to Amsterdam all by myself to meet up with my Dutch friend and her two friends. I will also admit that we had an amazing day wandering aimlessly through the streets of Amsterdam. I had a lot of fun and I wish I didn't have to leave so soon but it's alright.

Let's see. I guess we had a little bit of aim. We had to go to an enormous H&M and then two book stores and a music store and a candy store and a Belgian chocolate store. And we had to try to avoid the Red Light District and the various "coffee shops." (In the end, we lost the Red Light District one. Wandered in there by accident, then turned around and wandered our butts right back out. Oops. In our defense, none of us really knew where it was to begin with.)

I know everyone likes me to take pictures everywhere I go but I was too busy having fun. I took a few but it's not much. You know they say that you can't really live in the moment behind a camera. If you're looking at everything through a camera you're not really seeing it. I decided not to be a tourist this weekend.

This is the first time I've been in a country where I don't understand the language spoken. True, ALL Dutch people speak English, but only if they're talking to someone who doesn't speak Dutch. Jenny told me that everyone assumed she and her friends were English tourists because they were voluntarily speaking English (you know, thanks to me).

Right now I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. I have a lot of time, maybe I'll go find something to take pictures of. I have a very long day ahead of me.

Dang, I had so much fun. I should come back some day.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. I wish I could be there to share it with you.

Today I got an email from USAC France saying that they would have snacks and such in the office all day for us to come have. So that was my Thanksgiving breakfast. Chocolate and a banana.

Then later, in my afternoon class, everyone brought a food from their own nationality and we pushed all the tables together and had a big Thanksgiving lunch. There was such a huge variety of food. And of course, it left me absolutely stuffed. (I just don't eat like that anymore.)

Now tonight all of the USAC students (and any guests they bring) are going to Fabrizio's house (his parents kindly allowed us to use their home with the condition that his little sister be included) and again we each have to bring something for everyone to eat. That's where it gets a little more traditional, because Jill is making turkey and gravy, tons of people are bringing mashed potatoes, Brooke is making green bean casserole... Etc. And then a variety of other things will probably be there.

So that is how my Thanksgiving looks. As I said before, it's the first time I've ever had school on Thanksgiving but I think I will survive.

Happy Thanksgiving.

One more first.

Today is the first time I've ever gone to school on the day of Thanksgiving. Thank you France.

Happy Wednesday!

So I'm just sitting at school listening to my Colombian friend Sara talk to some other guy. It's hilarious, because half the things she says are in Spanish and the other half are in French, and she'll switch mid-sentence. I can't imagine how that might sound to someone who doesn't know Spanish. She keeps telling me to speak Spanish with her and I keep saying no. I'm such a pain.

So I have 27 days left in France (that's counting today and not counting the 21st of December, because I'm sure I'll be on planes all day that day). It is definitely bittersweet. I can't wait to go home. But I don't want to leave knowing there is something or several things I haven't done. So next Wednesday when I don't have classes I'm going to go downtown and take pictures of Pau, because I like pictures... I hope it's a sunny day.

I joined a Facebook group that was created by some of the people who are going to be in Spain with me. Everyone's posting on the group wall saying how scared they are to go to Spain. That's sort of how I felt three or four months ago, I completely understand how they feel... Regardless of the fact that I can't wait to go home now though, I really can't wait to go to Spain either. Alicante is going to be beautiful and meeting new people will be nice. Not that there's anything wrong with the people here! But still.

My family left my poor geranium outside to die this winter. Sad, it made for a very pretty blog header. I guess it's alright, it didn't really like the last winter that it spent indoors. Plants can be replaced.

This afternoon I'm meeting with one of the French students. She's supposed to be helping me be less shy. Poor girl, they're asking a lot from her with only three weeks of the semester left. She's gonna need probably 3 years to succeed in that one.

New Post

Well I'm making a new post, but I don't know what to say.  For one, my host mom decided to experiment with a new soup today and it was extremely delicious.  It was zucchini (like always), tomatoes and mascarpone.  I like creamy tomato soups, so I guess that's why I really liked it....

Yesterday we had a program trip to Saint Bertrand de Comminges.  It's a little tiny town but used to be a big Roman city.  Very interesting place.  From there we went up the road a little to this farm where we had lunch.  It was a five course lunch, and it was very good.  Vegetable soup, then a salad, then rotisserie chicken and roasted potatoes, then cheese, and then an apple tart.  After that we went to the Grottes de Gargas or the caves of Gargas.  At first I was a little unhappy that I forgot my camera, but then they told us there is no photography allowed in the caves, so I didn't care.  The caves were so awesome. I always wanted to explore caves, and it was so neat.  Of course, we took a guided tour and the tour focused on the cave paintings. I didn't really care about the cave paintings, I wanted to explore the cave itself. It's alright though, just from what I could see it was really cool. And very cold and very wet...

Tonight when we were sitting at dinner, Mango (the Maine Coon) walks up to the back window to be let inside. And he has this enormous mouse in his mouth.  He just sits there and looks at us and waits to be let in.  Until he finally leaves and then came back and my host mom lets him in and praises him for being a good mouse hunter.  Then he goes back outside to find his mouse and leave.  Last night, he slept on my bed all night.  And the night before he slept on my tummy. I miss my Jasper.  Mango just isn't Jasper, no matter how hard he tries.

On the other hand, I'll be heading back to the States in exactly one month.

I think that...

Nobody reads this anymore....

It's my fault, I haven't been keeping it updated... It's really hard to find new things to say...

First.

I guess I like making lists lately. For example, France has had a lot of firsts for me.

First time leaving the country.
First time riding in an underground rail system.
First time on a public bus.
First time taking a taxi.
First time traveling by myself (and successfully!)
First time eating kangaroo.
First time eating duck.
First time eating kebabs.
First time eating curry.
And brussel sprouts, eggplant, salmon (none of which I liked).
First time living somewhere outside of my parents' home.
First time visiting London, Paris and soon Amsterdam.
First time I'd been on the east coast of the US.
First time going to Florida (when I go home).
First time seeing the Atlantic!
First time living somewhere where it can be 75 degrees in the middle of November. And for more than just one day.
First time going to a Chinatown! (yea that was in London but it counts as a France experience to me)

There are so many more, but I can't remember anymore.

I don't think I've ever been this excited to go home. I have five weeks left. I guess it makes sense. I love traveling and going on vacation but one of the things I like most about it is getting home when it's done. And I really like to go on vacation with my family. I know, it's true that there's a lot of things I prefer to do with my family. But going places and seeing cool things just isn't the same with someone you don't really know.

Class time. Bye!

Happy Blog Post Day!

I don't have a lot to say. You may or may not be used to that by now.

I haven't been doing much the past two days. I feel like it's been two or three weeks since I've had time to rest, so this weekend I decided I wasn't doing anything.

So basically all I did today was eat lunch with my host family, which was very interesting.  Some random thing with tuna and eggs in it (it was very strange) and for dessert, an apricot tart/pie thing. Hey guess what, I don't like apricots. But I ate it and tried to enjoy it.   The parts that weren't covered in apricot were very tasty (though odd).

I'm losing a lot of weight... Regardless of the fact that yesterday all I ate was Snickers, peanut M&Ms and Reese's peanut butter cups.  The lovely scale in my bathroom always has some really pretty numbers on it. I'm so excited about it.  I've lost 18 pounds in France!  Dear France: You may keep them. Love, Angie.

Can I make a list of foods I want to make/eat when I get home?  I don't know if I'll have time for everything...

It'd probably looks like this:
Daddy's stir-fry
That pork we make with the mushroom/onion soup mix gravy and rice
Mongolian BBQ
This recipe I found for ikea swedish meatballs
Cafe Rio

There is more for that list but I went to dinner and lost my train of thought.

I had duck for dinner.

The end!

Six more weeks...

I'm just tired of being here. I didn't want Mom to leave. Or better yet, I wanted to go with her.  I know, I shouldn't be saying that when I know I have another semester in Spain still to come, but I'm just so thankful that I get to go home first. And maybe now I'll be able to prepare myself better. Also, maybe I can start things off in Spain a little better than I did here, so I won't dislike being there so much. I'm not really sure, because I don't know what I would do differently, I just know that at the very least being in a new place with new people is going to be a little refreshing.

But even that, I'm not sure about. At this point, when I go to London or Paris or wherever I go, I can't wait to come "home" to Pau.  I hope I don't feel that way when I'm in Spain. Pau is my European home right now, but it won't be my home anymore next semester...

So overall, I'm very glad Mom and Dan came to see me. Yes, it made me miss home even more, but at least I'm a week closer to getting home than I was before they came.  I can make it six more weeks... I just need to stay focused on school and (hopefully) the time will pass pretty quickly.

So I guess now that I'm done "vacationing" I should get back to daily posting. Let's see, yesterday we took a trip to Lourdes and explored this castle on top of a hill in the middle of the city. It was a pretty neat place.  Monday we drove out to Bayonne and Biarritz and looked at the beach. It was raining and beautiful. I love the rain, and I love the beach, so in my opinion it was perfect.  We ate a lot of bread and cheese this week. That probably didn't help my little goal of losing weight but it's okay, I'm sure I'll be able to make up for it. I also took Mom and Dan to two kebab places--very glad we did that.  I have now discovered which kebab place is my favorite. I'm sure I said this before but, that's definitely something I will miss upon returning to the States. We went to the little Mexican place in town where I mentioned I wanted to go too. It's very French Mexican--meaning, very light. French people don't really eat heavy foods much, I think this little Mexican place has kind of bent to fit French tastes.  I was very happy with it.  And it turns out the price was not too outrageous (we went for lunch, it was 11 euros for an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert) though probably still more than most people are willing to spend for lunch.

Tomorrow I might go for a little run, or take a long walk downtown with a camera... Relieve a little stress.  I'm here for six more weeks, I know I really need to make the best of it whether I like it or not.

Sunday?

I'm very tired. I'm very happy to be back in Pau. I'm very glad my mother is home. I don't believe it's Sunday already? Where did the weekend go?


I am also happy that Mom came to dinner at my host family's house.  I do feel bad for getting there so late but I don't know if we could really help that. It took us forever to get to Pau.  I feel like I'm barely going to have time to see Mom and Dan this week because I have class all the time. 


This is going to be a super-short post today...


The drive from Paris to Pau was horrible, but pretty.  And we didn't get too lost.  We managed to get here eventually.


I don't know, I guess I don't really have a lot to say. Like I said before, I'm glad to be home. I'm glad that my (very kind) host mother did all my laundry while I was in Paris. That was very nice of her. It was all dirty when I got home from London so I was kind of out of clean clothing to wear. 


And now it's late, so that is all that you'll hear from me tonight.  Eventually, when I get the chance, I will get up the pictures I took in London and whatever I take here with Mom.

More Paris!

I can't wait to leave for Paris tonight. One more class to get through.  I have to give a presentation too, I hope it goes well. I don't want to do it, but I guess at least then I'll be done with it and I won't have to worry about it for the rest of the semester. She assigned us days to give our presentations and it's perfectly fair because you know the people who have more time aren't going to actually take that time.  Some people are doing theirs as late as the last week of classes.  I'm just glad I'm not first, and I guess I'm kind of glad I'm not doing it the week that Mom is in Pau because then I'd have to spend time doing homework instead.


Mom already told me they were accosted by a crazy French man in Paris. When they went to get food. That sounds like a lot of fun.  My host mom and dad are very excited that she's coming. I asked them what time is best for dinner and they thought that was bizarre, since we're the ones who are going to be driving. They said we will have dinner whenever we are ready to have dinner.  They just want me to let them know when we're on our way so they know when to expect us.


I'm very hungry. And I'm sure that won't make my presentation any easier. I don't think I'll have any time to eat today so I'll just have to grin and bear it...  What sounds good is kebabs.  Actually they sound really good.  And fries. Yes.  Or perhaps, vending machine snacks!  Or food on the train. I think there's a food car on the train. I saw some people with food when we were coming from Paris to Pau and it looked freshly cooked. Maybe there's hope. It will probably be expensive... I saw croque monsieurs. I love those.


Well. Wish me luck on that presentation. It's going to be lots of fun.

I'm back!

I don't even know what to post about. Yea, I just spent the last week in London. There were some goods and some bads, in the end I'm just glad to be back in France.  Back where I have my own room and the internet doesn't suck. I meant to post yesterday but I didn't feel well at all, so here's to today.


Mom and Dan leave for France today. I'm so excited for them!  I still wish I could be in Paris when they get there but it's okay. I just can't wait til Friday. 


French people look at you weird when you stand at the bus stop and sing invisible songs... It's like French people don't sing. At all. Okay I'm not so sure about that, when I was in London at our youth hostel I was playing some music on my iPod and this French song came on, and there was a French girl not far from me and she started singing to it.  It was pretty amusing.


I don't know why I just legitimately have nothing to say. Everyone wants to know how London was and stuff like that but I really don't have anything to say about London... I'm going to have a real hard time with my host family then, because they always want to know how my trips went... I honestly have nothing to tell about London. Yea, not one of the most exciting trips I've been on.... For one thing, it was too long. And I told Jennifer before we left, 10 days is going to be way too long. She didn't believe me...  The last 3 days we were there, I was exhausted and ready to go home. And the only reason I wasn't done long before that was because we spent two days doing nothing while Jennifer was in the hospital.  I know you'd think if it's a cool place it'd be nice to spend more time there, but the best vacations I've ever had were only 3 or 4 days in one place.  I would have been fine leaving London after day five...  Oh well, no big deal. I'll get over it. I ate a lot of Chinese food while I was there and should be good for the rest of the semester here in Chinese-less Pau.  Now I'm just missing Mexican food. I read that there was a Taco Bell near London but we didn't go... I know, that's not real Mexican food anyways. But it would have done for a while.


I just want to say: I can't wait to get home from Spain in May. I can't wait to move to Boise and get a job and start doing my own thing.  I'm trying to be positive about how easy it will be to find a job after studying abroad for a year. I think it raises my chances a lot but who really knows? I know for sure that when I move to Boise I might start going to the gym at Boise State.  If I don't lose the weight I want to lose while I'm here, I'm going to lose it when I get home. Absolutely. May just seems like such a long time from now... But at the same time, I thought four months in France sounded like a long time but I've been here for at least two months now and there's only seven more weeks until we're heading home already.  I don't really know how I feel about that... On one hand, I can't wait to get home and eat normal food again and speak English and see my family and my cat and be in the same continent as everyone I know and also be in the same time zones, or at least one or two time zones away. On the other hand I know I really profit from being here and I don't want to ruin the rest of my time here by spending all of it looking forward to going home...  I definitely do look forward to switching to Spain though, because I'll have a different atmosphere and new people to meet and new opportunities to try to break out of my shell... 


Speaking of which, I've been talking to this Colombian girl lately. She speaks Spanish and kind of understands a little English but not really. We mainly talk in French. She wants me to talk to her in Spanish but I don't really want to. It's just weird. Besides, she talks too fast for me.  Today, during our two hour break, we were sitting on a bench in the main class building and she left for a few minutes to go to the bathroom.  This French girl came up to me and said that she noticed we were foreign students and asked if I want to do a language exchange. She is studying English at the university.  I gave her my email address and she said she'd email me.  That's pretty cool, I went to the USAC office at the beginning of the semester for a language partner, but I never ended up emailing her. (I feel bad about that but now I feel like it's too late... Maybe I'll still email her too.)  It would be really cool if that girl actually emails me.  I feel like finding a language partner like that is a lot more interesting than going to the office and asking for a name and email address.


Okay. I think I'm done posting for the night.  Thank you for reading, you are a lovely audience.

Food anyone...?

This is going to be dedicated solely to food today.


So there's this Mexican restaurant downtown... I love Mexican food, and I miss it. I would love to go to this place for lunch one day or something, just to try it out. Supposedly it's really good, because it's actually owned and run by Mexicans.  The problem is that it's expensive because a Mexican restaurant is a rarity in France, and none of my friends would want to go for dinner and no one else has time to go for lunch... I only want to go once though...  I'm not sure what to do about this...


Jennifer and I have been to 4 kebab restaurants in the last 2 or 3 weeks and we've decided we're going to start rating all the kebab places we go to. The place in Carcassonne had really good meat. I think the place we went to last night had my favorite sauce so far. The first place we went to had good service (we don't really remember the food enough, we've decided we're going to have to make a repeat trip). The second place we went to, I didn't really like.  Out of the other three, I'm pretty sure all of them had good fries.  The other thing we decided to rate based on was composition of the actual sandwich but at this point I'm not sure which one did that best. The one in Carcassonne was generous with meat but the veggies were all squished to the bottom, the one we went to last night might have been a little light on the meat but the veggies were distributed a lot better...  You get the point, right?  So far all of the places we've been to have been fairly good... Now, if I could just have the meat from that one, and the sauce from that one, and the sandwich type/bread from that one, and the fries from that one, I'd be happy.  Kebabs are so good, what am I going to do without them?  I need to move somewhere that has kebabs in the States, I think...


I found a new poison, in the vending machines at school. There's this drink, the brand is Oasis, it's a strawberry-raspberry drink in a can (non-carbonated) and it's soooo good.  I bet I won't be able to find it at home. This is what sucks about coming here, all these things that I like that I won't have at home!


Not to mention the other night my host mom made this really good... stuff.  It was white rice with a sauce on it. And the sauce had big pieces of meat, and also little pieces of bacon, and I could taste that it had mustard in it, I don't know what else was in it. It seemed kind of sweet. That's one I might have to ask her for, because it was very good. Also, several weeks ago we had sausage and lentils and that was very, very good.


I'm so hungry.

Photo albums...

All my photo album links should now be working.

Post.

I haven't posted in the last three days... I'm sorry. I just haven't been in a very good mood and I don't want to post things that come off sounding too sad or something.


Aside from that, I haven't been doing much in the last 3 days either.  Learning French. That's about it. A lot of people who are here are deciding to stay for an extra semester because they like it here. I'm kind of glad I'm going to Spain next. I don't like it here. It's cool and stuff but I'm already done with it.  I feel like I've been here long enough already.  The next couple weeks should pass quickly enough though because I'm going to London and then Mom and Dan are coming, and then I only have to be here for a little while longer. It'll work out fine.  I can't wait for it to finally be "winter" because it'll be a bit cooler and we'll have the rain...


So, now I don't know what else to write about. Let's see. Last night I went to Stephanie's dorm for dinner and we made spaghetti. She asked me if we should use the alfredo sauce, or the marinara sauce, and you should have seen the look on her face when I suggested we use them both.  Guess she's never tried that...  I mixed them together and we used them and we actually ended up having barely enough sauce, so I guess we kind of needed to mix them.  It was a very nice dinner.  And then when it was time for me to go, it was already like 9pm so I was going to have to walk home. Stephanie decided she was going to walk me home because she didn't want me walking an hour in the dark. I told her she wasn't allowed to because I'd be fine and besides, if she walks me home she'll be walking back in the dark. She said we'd find someone to go with us. So she asked three different people who all said they were busy or already in their pajamas, and then she went to ask Elizabeth, who had her neighbor over. And Elizabeth asked her neighbor, who had a car, if he could just drive me home.  So some French guy drove me home last night, it was very nice of him.


What else...  I got a package in the mail yesterday, packages are cool... Uhhh...  My class today, which is normally at 9am, got changed to 1pm, so I get the morning to do whatever. So far it's been spent sleeping and typing a blog post. It's only 10, who knows what'll happen next. I'll probably go into town early anyways and see if I can find something to do there. I think I need to go to the post office anyways.


Alright. That's it for now. I'll try to find something to post about for tomorrow.

Pictures

Forgot to mention... My father pointed out to me that the picture links are all broken, I am working on fixing that, don't worry...

Gavarnie

I didn't post yesterday... Because I didn't feel like posting yesterday... I thought about just posting a message saying I wasn't going to write anything but I didn't feel like doing that either...


The buses were back up after two days of strikes. No problems with that anymore.  Today we took a trip with USAC and got home really late, so I ended up walking home again.  Google said I should be able to walk that in 47 minutes and it always took me a lot longer, so I wanted to see if I could walk home faster than Google said I could. I got home in 40 minutes.  Not bad, but I had to speed-walk and I was pretty exhausted...


Gavarnie is beautiful. One of the prettiest places in France, supposedly. It's just this little tiny town in the middle of the Pyrenees mountain range.  We ate some special local stew at a restaurant in Gavarnie and then we took this long hike into the Pyrenees to look at one of the tallest waterfalls in Europe.  I was a little unhappy with myself.  It was so beautiful. I forgot my camera at home.  Also, that hike was exhausting.  Which is why I was exhausted speed-walking home.  I've gotten so much exercise today...


One more week and I get to go on my fall break. I am not going to be any more rested then than I am now, thanks to our week-long trip to London... But oh well. It'll be fun. And at least we'll be able to sleep in if we really want to...  Though Jennifer has us booked at a hostel in a 21-person room.  I am not sure if I will like that.   I hope it's quiet. I guess we'll have to see what it's like when we get there.  They're supposed to give us free breakfast and stuff...  Hope it's worth it.


I'm so tired...


And I miss my best friend...

I can't remember...

I've forgotten everything I was going to post today.


I got a card from Grandma. A card from Heather.  A card from Kelly.  Thank you all very much.  I go by the USAC office every day to check for mail, because I have nothing better to do.  Now I'm waiting for a box, I guess.


I got a new student ID card because I already lost the first one. The USAC office told me I'd have to pay 10 euros for it, but the foreign students office didn't charge me so I guess my program's office was mistaken...


My host dad is excited to speak American to my mother. He wants to surprise her with how good his American is.  Don't tell him I told you that, it's supposed to be a surprise.  They've both warned me that normally when they have dinners with friends or family, they can spend up to 3 or 4 hours at the table and that they think their last host student's mom got really bored and annoyed with being at the table for so long, especially since not a lot of Americans eat at the table I guess....


So when they were talking about speaking American, and my host dad said something about how when my family is here, he can speak American with them, etc. and my host mom said something along the lines of, well you don't speak Spanish to Angie, she speaks some Spanish, don't you Angie?  And then he started to talk to me in Spanish and... my brain exploded.  My brain is thinking in French! And it's an English brain!  Do you know how hard it is to translate French to Spanish in an English brain?!  I could understand him but I was drawing blanks on how to respond. It wasn't very nice of them.  I have a feeling it might be similar to that next semester when I first get to Spain. My brain will think in French before it thinks in Spanish...  I have been studying them both at the same time for 4 years and have never had a problem with that, but I think pretty soon I will.  I can't wait for the day when I can say things without having to think too hard about what I want to say.  Well I can already sometimes do that in French but there are still things I have to think about or backtrack on.  I'll get the hang of this, I'm sure...  I wish I could take on a couple more languages... But maybe I should fluently learn the ones I've already got first.


I hope Mom and Dan will survive in Paris without me that first day.... Just remember, guys.  Pickpockets... Especially on a crowded metro (and particularly metro line 1), if you have a bag or anything hold it in front of you on the metro...  And a surprisingly small number of people in Paris know English (especially compared to Carcassonne. I was shocked).  Before you get too far from the airport, find somewhere to grab a metro map...  Those are super useful...  I found the metro pretty easy to navigate as long as you know where you're going.  I know you guys aren't even going to be here for another three weeks but still.


Also wanted to let my mommy know that all French people are far more aggressive as drivers and you'll probably have to be equally aggressive or you won't be going anywhere. Also, French people don't really follow speed limits...


Alright. I'm out of things to say for now. Bye bye!!

(insert title here)

You want to know what I love about France? Every city I've been in up to this point has had either a river or a bay.  There's water everywhere! I love water (I get that from my mom).  It's too bad I can't go play in it. When I get the chance, I will upload my pictures of all the pretty fishies that I saw in the bay in San Sebastian. I'm not sure how to, though.  I took the pictures on my iPod.  Another thing I like about France?  The public transportation system and how easy it is to use. (Until everyone goes on strike and then you have to walk.)  It's so nice to be able to jump on a train with a ticket that you got for a fairly decent price and go where you want to go. Likewise, it's nice that when I need to go downtown I can just flash a bus driver my bus pass, which I pay 15 euros monthly for, and get a quick ride downtown.


It's going to be really weird going back to the US. Right now, I'm so used to having to formulate in my head what I need to say in French if I'm going into a store or up to a counter to ask about something.  Even when I was thinking forward to our London trip, I was thinking about how we were going to have to go somewhere (I don't remember where) to ask about something, and I was trying to decide the best way to say that in French. Until I realized that in London they speak English.


I can't wait for this week to be over. And then after that, I can't wait for next week to be over. And then I get my fall break. Yay!

My new part-time job.

Did you know I have 22 and a half hours of French class each week? It's like a part-time job...  And then I get to come home and talk to my host parents in French too. Like a job that follows you home!  I thought only some full-time jobs did that...  I'm so tired.


Today, there was a bus strike. Well I'm not really sure what the strike was on, someone said it was just a strike in town right in front of the bus depot so none of the buses could get out to run their routes. I saw a couple buses later on in the night.  I hope the strike is out of the way tomorrow at least, the website says that they expect at least 60% of routes to be running.  This is no fun. This morning my host mom generously drove me to school and then I walked home at 8pm. It takes an hour to walk home!


I asked my host mom if it'd be okay to invite my mom and brother to dinner here while they're in Pau. She said it was fine, but the last time one of their host students invited her mother to eat dinner with the family it was awkward and she sensed that the girl's mother was a little annoyed, because French people like to spend a lot of time at the dinner table talking, particularly when they have guests, and she said she thinks most Americans aren't used to that because most don't even eat at the table at all. We talked about what day would be best for dinner, and then we talked about renting cars and the non-existence of automatic cars in France and the autoroute from Paris to Pau.  Mom, I hope you know that highways in France are toll highways.  And that the autoroute between Bordeaux and Pau is supposed to be one of the most expensive roads in France.

I hate titles.

I'm pretty sure, just in this last week or so, my teacher has chosen me as one of her "favorites."  She always wants me to read stuff, and she always asks me to write stuff on the board because I write "pretty," and today she told the class that as of today I'm going to talk more because we talked about it last Friday.  And how it's too bad that I don't talk more because participation is part of our grades and I speak well, etc.  I'm trying, alright?  It's just hard for me to talk.  Believe it or not, I'm shy.  Today we had 3 French students who want to be French teachers sit in on our classes. I don't know if that was just for today, or for forever.  Fine with me though, I thought it was nice having them there.


There's a "notice of a strike" all over the buses and I'm not really sure what it means. I asked my host parents and they don't know either.  The website for the buses says that due to filed notice of a strike between 11/10 (October 11th) and 31/12 (December 31st), bus routes could be... perturbed.  Does that word mean the same in English as it does in French?  Give me a second, I'm going to look it up.  Okay I think it means almost the same thing... Close enough.  The bus routes may have to change a little to accommodate for the strike, perhaps?  I just hope it's not an all-out bus strike... I have no way to get to school and it takes an hour, walking. Trust me, I walked home yesterday. Eep.


Luckily, this weekend we have a USAC trip to the Pyrenees, the weekend after that starts our autumn break and then I'm going to London for a week, and then the weekend after I get back from London I'm going to Paris to get my mommy.  I really think that's all going to make classes seem to pass a lot quicker, because I'm going to always be busy....  Busy is good! Right?

Carcassonne

Carcassonne was amazing, to sum it all up.  We got there, couldn't find the hotel I'd researched, so we found a park and utilized France's convenient thing called free wifi.  Alright, it's not as easy as it sounds.  There's a cell phone company in France called SFR.  SFR has free wifi in a lot of different places, the only thing about it is that you have to make an SFR log-in. I believe in order to make an SFR log-in you have to have a French bank account. However, other students before us who have gone through the trouble of doing this have passed on their log-ins to all the rest of us so that we can use this free wifi if we need to. (This is especially useful to those in the dorms, they don't have internet at all there.)  We sat down in a park and Jennifer used SFR free wifi on her iPad to find the hotel we wanted to stay in.


We dropped our things off at the hotel (wasn't the best hotel in the world but oh well) and the guy at the front desk gave us a map and showed us how to get up to the fortress and castle from where we were.  That was where we immediately headed.  It wasn't too long of a walk.  We got there and before we even got into the little city inside the fortress, we found the outer fortress wall.  There's the nice big gap between the inner fortress wall that encloses the city, and the lower outer fortress wall.  Both the inner wall and outer wall have walkways along the top and holes for gunners/archers (I'm not sure which it was at the time).  We found some old stone steps and climbed up to walk along the outer fortress wall.


I guess the thing I really liked about the fortress at Carcassonne is that it wasn't staged. All the other places we'd visited had been staged to show you certain different aspects of how the people in the castle lived.  This place was left raw, as it was.  There were no signs all over the place saying "THIS IS THIS."  There were no safety ropes keeping you from touching things that were hundreds of years old. Some places where there were enormous holes in the ground had metal doors keeping you out but they looked like they'd already been part of the castle anyways, all the had to do was add a modern lock.  The view from those higher walkways was amazing. (I need to find a new adjective...)


After we finally got our heads out of the clouds, we went into the actual city.  This place was also very neat.  There were tons of little souvenir-type shops, and they had such cool things. I had to stop and go in every single one of them. I'm a little upset, I appear to have lost my really cool picture of the candy shop.  I have to admit, I did buy a few souvenirs...


After we got done shopping we explored the area between the outer and inner wall again, and then we headed back down to the actual town... We found a pretty little bridge over the river and sat there as the sun set, just because it was pretty.  We went back to our hotel, dropped off our purchases, and then went out to find food. (We actually managed to find another kebab place, those kebabs were better than any others we'd had but I wasn't hungry enough to eat it all. It was very sad.)  After we ate, it was dark enough to walk back to the bridges and take pictures of the fortress and castle and footbridge in lights.  My pictures didn't turn out the best but it was still a very pretty sight to see.  (Also, Jennifer thought I was insane because I was in a good mood and running everywhere we went. She just wanted to walk.  Poor Jennifer.)


Our hotel was not the best, but it got the job done and that's all we could ask for, for 45 euros.  The room was clean, the toilet was down the hall and we shared it with the other people who had cheap rooms. We had a shower in our room though.  Two twin beds, Jennifer's was horribly hard. I guess I made a lucky pick.  She didn't really get much sleep.  In the morning we went to the Monoprix there -- we don't have one in Pau and Jennifer had never been.  We bought waffles and went back to that pretty little bridge and sat with our feet over the water trying to decide what to do. In the end we decided to go home early.  We went to the train station and caught a train 6 hours before our scheduled return train.


All in all, it was very nice.  I loved Carcassonne. I'm glad we went, even if Jennifer thought it was a little on the expensive side.


I have pictures from Carcassonne already posted, please check the sidebar.

FRIDAY

I think I made a mistake.  Today, in my French class, we were doing some exercises and the teacher was coming around and checking our work as we were doing it.  And she told me mine was parfait.  Everyone else had tons of problems.  Then we got to the part where we were going to correct them together, she sent me to the board. And told me I get to be the teacher.  Then I got to read the sentences out loud with my answers, tell why I chose those answers, and then write them on the board for spelling purposes.  She said it was because I have good handwriting but she was probably only saying that for the class's sake... I feel like she's going to target me from now on... I don't want to always be the one giving answers.


Jennifer and I changed our minds. We're going to Carcassonne this weekend instead of Biarritz.  Carcassonne is supposed to be really pretty, I need to charge my camera.  We don't have a place to stay the night but I'm sure we'll find one. I hope. That probably sounds really bad...  We'll manage, don't worry.


Jennifer said I have to blog about my bus experience today.  We were on a crowded bus going downtown, and Jennifer was sitting in a seat behind me and I was turned around to talk to her.  And then this weird old guy standing in the aisle right next to me started asking me something, and I honestly have no idea what he was saying. Then some younger guy standing behind Jennifer told him that I don't speak French, I speak English and I said that no, I speak a little French. And then the old guy next to me said something again and I really couldn't understand him and I said, well I speak French but I have no idea what you're asking me. And then he said something probably about 10 times that sounded like "omelet" and I said, I don't understand.  Then he gave up.  It was pretty amusing I guess but it was so odd. I don't know what you're saying! Crazy person.  The people around us thought it was pretty funny too so I'm glad I could be there to entertain them.

Oops.

I didn't write again yesterday. Sorry about that. I need to stay on top of it.  I just didn't really have a lot to say, I went to school and that was uneventful, and then I came home.  It rained last night. I talked to Alyssa on Skype. It's supposed to rain today, and be cold and clammy all weekend. Jennifer and I are thinking of taking the train to the beach tomorrow.


I've only got about two more weeks before break, and then I'm headed to London. I can't wait for that.  It'll be a lot of fun. Especially since the next weekend I get to go find my mom in Paris. I'm trying to stay busy. I have 11 weekends left here and I now have plans for I think 8 of them. There are a couple places I'd like to go and I think I can squeeze them in, I just need to plan well.  Beach this weekend, Pyrenees with USAC next weekend, London the two weekends after that, Paris the weekend after that...


And I definitely think that when I go to Spain for my semester there, I'm going to drag a few of the friends I make there back up here to France to visit.  I also feel like it's going to be so difficult to go to Spain and speak Spanish to everyone after I've spent a semester absorbing French. It'll be fun.  I'm going to audit a Spanish class here so I at least keep that Spanish stuff in my mind.


Anyways, I'm going to go to school now. Yay, it's Friday!

Food?

I didn't post yesterday. Sorry.  Yesterday was my long day. My busy day. My first class starts at 9 in the morning and my last class ends at 19h30 and by the time I get home I'm exhausted. In contrast to my long Tuesdays, Wednesdays are my short days. I have one class, from 9 to 11, and then I'm free to do whatever I want... I didn't think it was necessary to go home that early, so I went downtown and walked around a bit. My feet hurt so bad, I was wearing my tie-up shoes, which have heels...  I think I'm going to be wearing those until it starts getting cold so I'm sure I'll get used to it.  I don't like wearing tennis shoes all the time, I feel so out of place... No one wears tennis shoes.


So, there was a specific someone who mentioned that all I ever talk about is food. Well I just want you to know, food is a big part of French culture. When you go to a foreign country, after you're done 'seeing the sights,' what is there left to do but talk to the people and eat the food?  You might have seen everything, but there's no way you've tasted everything.  And for some reason, I feel that with Americans it's even more important to see and taste all the food in another country, because the United States doesn't really have its own food culture. We borrow food from other cultures.  I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that -- I love "American" cuisine.  It's just that here I'm in a country that has spent so much focus and so many years building up this food culture to be what it is today.  True, they borrow things from other countries too, like the kebab place I went to or the falafel places I want to visit, but they're still pretty unique to me when I've never seen anything like that.


As such, I think I'll talk about food a little now.. Just a little, not a lot.  I have been told by quite a few people that Georgio's ice cream van is the best ice cream in Pau.  It's not always very easy to find though.  Today, I found it.  And I got a cone with banana ice cream on the bottom, strawberry ice cream next and then pistachio ice cream on the bottom.  I think this stuff was fresh-made, it really seemed like it... It was delicious.  I ate all the pistachio ice cream on it's own and then I ate the strawberry and banana together (I'm a genius). It was definitely worth it.


I also toured the castle of Pau today. You know, the castle where Henri IV, king of France was born.  Yes, that one.  You hear about Henri IV a lot here in Pau.  Supposedly, the castle here in Pau has the biggest tapestry collection in all of France, or something.  It's a nice castle. Really big. And three floors. Remember how I said my feet hurt....?


I'm tired. I've probably been staying up too late. I think I need to go places on the weekend more. Travel to the local places that I can go to.  Avignon is supposed to be pretty, Lourdes too.  And I'd really like to make it to the beach in Biarritz.  I don't think I can find anyone who wants to go somewhere every weekend though.  I just think we need to do it. We only have 12 or 11 more weeks here. At least 5 of those weekends, I already have plans.  (Two in London, one in Paris, another in the Pyrenees and I don't know where the other one is supposed to be but it's a program trip.)  If I don't get my butt moving and actually go to these places, I'm going to run out of time...  Some people are going to Avignon this weekend, I might tag along with them.  I don't really know.


I added a couple things to my sidebar -- first of all, a follow-by-email thing down under the actual followers thing.  Second, my mailing address.  

Longggg Days

Good news!  The postal service works.  I got two more cards today. Thank you, Nani and Karen.  I love getting mail!  Also, Nani:  I'm jealous of you guys going to Olive Garden. I would love some Olive Garden right about now.


So today I lost my student ID card. You know, the one I just got last week. I keep it in the pocket with my bus pass and my bus pass has a rubbery-type cover thing. I'm thinking that it stuck to my bus pass when I went to pull it out before getting on the bus this morning, and then it probably fell on the ground.  I did check the ground by the bus stop on my way home this afternoon but I didn't see it... Hopefully someone picked it up and will turn it in to the Faculte des Lettres building in the IEFE office... I'll check tomorrow. I think it only had about 10 euros on it.


I'm starting to like my class. Right now we're just reviewing grammar a lot, and of course grammar is my very favorite.  Today my teacher actually called me to the board to write the answers to homework questions as people read them out.... We get two types of homework in my classes. The kind that we have to do and turn in, and the kind that we just do and then talk about in class. This was the kind that we were just talking about in class, and I didn't do it (shame on me).  It was the kind of assignment where they give you a sentence with an un-conjugated verb and you have to fill in the blank with the conjugation.  She had me writing the correct answer on the board as each person read a different sentence out loud with their answer. It's good that I'm quick at that, it was easy stuff.  Also, the building is a bit behind on the times and I got to write all the answers on the chalkboard. I think I like chalkboards better than whiteboards...


Now, asides from writing on chalkboards.... I want you to know that McDonald's in France has bendy straws -- also, two-story McDonalds' are common. Teenagers in France cannot get their driver's licenses until they are 18 years old -- they can drive with their parents at 16.  Domino's only sells sandwiches at lunch, they do not sell pasta at all. Domino's also sells beer and wine (even for delivery).  They have a lot more "side" options than the Domino's in the states.  (You can look at the Domino's menu for yourself if you'd like, it's at http://dominos.fr.  It is in French, if you use Google Chrome as a web browser you can translate it.)  Korean people do not bother distinguishing whether they are from North Korea or South Korea, to them they are just Korean (I know people who would always get on my case for saying just 'Korea' but honestly the Koreans themselves even do it).  What else do I want you to know, hmmm...  If you are in the crosswalk in France and the light turns green, the cars will go.  They might just go slowly to not hit you but they will get as close to you as possible if you don't move.   Restaurants in France actually do close between 2pm and 7pm (give or take an hour or two depending on the restaurant) -- no one eats at that time. Ever.  French people talk to their cats and dogs. Often.  Most French dogs are small breeds but I have seen a good number of retrievers and pit bull mixes and I even saw a pretty rottweiler Saturday.  French food is good, Basque and Spanish food are better (so far. I've only had a little bit of Basque and Spanish food yet though).  In southern France (or at least in this town), it supposedly rains all winter.  I brought an umbrella.  There is no such thing as a one-stop-shop in France. (Sorry, no wal-marts.)  I never actually thought about what kind of things are considered "pharmacy" products but if you need toothpaste or soap, you go to the pharmacy.  Pharmacies are very different in France.  You go there for general care products, but you also go there for advice.  If you have a cold, you go the pharmacy. The pharmacist will either give you drugs to get better, or advise you to see a real doctor if he thinks it's bad enough.  You always go to the pharmacist first here (it's cheaper, not that money at a doctor's office is an issue because if you go to the doctor without insurance, you pay the doctor twenty-some euros up front and a little more later if you end up needing more than just an general exam and a prescription but all-in-all it's not expensive. No hundred-dollar doctor bills).  I think that's all I want you to know right now. I can't think of anything else.


Tomorrow is my longest day of the week, followed by my shortest day of the week. I think I'll survive it just fine.  I can't wait until the semester is over because I can't wait to go home, but I don't think it'll drag on forever because luckily my classes are not unbearable.  I'm glad I'm not horribly homesick. There are just certain little things I miss. I miss my cat. I miss my phone. I miss the food.  I miss my bed.  Stuff that I can get by just fine without, but still.  They said November is when most American students get homesick because that's when it starts raining. Every day.  I can't wait.  I love rain.