Kebabs!

First of all, today was a long day. 


Second, I'm extremely glad I bought that 12-25 discount card for trains.


Third, kebabs are awesome.


Fourth, I can't wait 'til Mommy and Dan come visit!


Alright. I had 5 hours of class today. All the same class, not 4 or 5 different classes. And it was really 3 hours of class, a break for an hour and a half, and then two more hours.  It was tiring but somehow I actually survived. Yay!  I don't think classes are going to be bad at all. I'm just glad I can comprehend people a lot better now than I could when I first got to France. Though, there was the guy at the bus stop tonight... I'll get to that in a minute.


So today after classes Jennifer and I went down to the train station to get train tickets to Paris and also train tickets to go to Toulouse tomorrow. The art history class is required to go, but anyone can tag along if they want.  I decided I want.  Some girls told me it wasn't cheap, 46 euros for a round-trip (hey, that's not that bad if you ask me) but it turns out that since I bought a discount card I got my round-trip ticket for 30 euros. And then the train to Paris was 33 euros. I feel like that was a huge bargain.  Turns out tickets are definitely cheaper if you buy them with a 12-25 card, and in the actual station (online the cost for the round-trip tickets to Toulouse on the same trains are 40 euros).  I'm taking my first ever train ride tomorrow! I have to leave at 7:30 in the morning and I have Jennifer's tickets so I can't be late (Jennifer is actually in the art history class. She has to be there).


So we actually managed to find that kebab place today. It was awesome. Positively excellent. Stephanie and Jennifer stood there looking at the menu and I knew neither of them would know what was good (and neither would I) so I asked the guy at the counter, what's the best thing on the menu? And he told me. And asked if we wanted three of them. So that's what we got. They were just regular kebab sandwich things, with lettuce, tomatoes, onion and kebab meat, and then he asked us each what sauce we wanted.  Stephanie and Jennifer got mayonnaise and ketchup (respectively) and I decided to try the traditional stuff rather than the American condiments, and I had this weird red picante sauce. It was very, very good. Nice and spicy, too. We also got a decent-sized pile of fries. We only payed 4,50 euros for the whole thing. It was such a good deal, and so delicious.  (If you don't know how kebabs work, they thinly slice the meat off of something that looks like this and stuff a pita-type bread full of the meat and other ingredients. So good.)


So, now that I've bought my ticket to Paris I can't wait to go!  Well, I couldn't wait to go before either but now I'm even more excited. I get out of class at 16h30 and the train leaves at 17h36 so I think I'll have plenty of time. Jennifer didn't buy her ticket yet because she didn't have enough money on her at the time (and somehow I feel like she might not even buy one? But it'll be okay with me if she doesn't).  And I can't wait to show Mom and Dan around Pau.  I think there are places here that they'd really like. I'm going to ask my host family if it'd be okay to invite them over for dinner one night, something tells me my host parents would like that.  Also, Dear Mom: I need to know what day you guys are leaving France, please, and I have Wednesday afternoons (after 11am) completely free if we want to try to go to the French Basque country (and the beach).  I'm so excited!


In the bus stop downtown, understandably, there are always some very questionable characters hanging around. It's a little unavoidable because the last bus from the university leaves at 19h49 and the last bus from town leaves at 20h26 so it gives me a little more room for doing things in town with friends...  Tonight there was this weird guy with a euro-mohawk there, he had two manga books and he asked me for cigarettes. I told him I don't have any, I don't smoke.  He decided to sit down next to me to read his manga books (after he offered to sell them to me for 5 euros) and he popped open his beer and talked to himself a little. I was singing because I decided I don't care what French people think, and after a few minutes he interrupted me to ask me what my name is, tell me I have a pretty voice, and ask me where I'm from. I know I shouldn't talk to people like that but oh well. I talked to him until the bus came.  He wasn't there to catch the bus though, he was just there for who knows what reason, so thankfully he didn't follow me home or anything.


I would like to thank my mommy's friends Char, Tammy, Stacy and Kim for the cards (though they probably don't read this. I decided it's the thought that counts).


Also, in regards to numbers and times.... In European numbers, the comma and decimal are reversed. When I talk about 4,50 euros for a kebab, that's 4.50.  When I say there are 5.000 people somewhere, that's 5,000. Also, in France time is written, for example, 10h00 rather than 10:00 (the h stands for "heures" or hours, of course) on a 24 hour clock.  I'm probably going to be writing my times and numbers like that from now on so there's your explanation for that.

Is it Friday yet?

Yesterday we finally got our student ID cards for the University of Pau, and I put 20 euros on mine so that I can use it in the school vending machines. I never have change. That's the only place I know to find a good espresso...  And yea, they're little tiny cups and they cost 40 cents but I don't think that's horribly priced.


We got half the day off today because it's a Sports Day on campus where a bunch of different activities were giving demonstrations. We went to where they had a tightrope walking demonstration and then they would let you walk on the rope. Why do we not have this at BSU...?  It was really cool.  (I should have tried it. I don't know why I didn't. I watched Catalina try it though.)


(I'm about to talk about food again...) There's this place on campus called La Vague (the wave) where you can go for lunch and it costs 3,05 euros and they give you a lot of good food, it's a really good value.  You get an entree plate, and then you can also take a dessert (which is usually yogurt or a little thing of grapes or something like that) and a side (which is usually a little thing of shredded carrots, or couscous, or a hard-boiled egg, or something simple like that).  Yesterday for our entree plate we had some decent raviolis and a big pile of green beans, today they had dark meat turkey cooked in some sort of red sauce (it was good) and steamed potatoes.  Actually they typically have two different choices for entree plates.  Yesterday along with the raviolis they also had some kind of fish with sauce, and along with green beans they had plain penne pasta.  You can have either green beans, penne pasta, or a little of both (for example).  I've been pretty happy with most of the stuff I've gotten from there.


Jennifer and I need to go buy tickets to Paris now that we have our class schedules... We're not going to be able to leave until probably 6pm... It's going to be no fun.


I could really go for some of that pizza we had in San Sebastian. I don't suppose they deliver this far....

Can I talk about food again?

Bleh. I'm already tired of classes. I'm sure I'll get over it but right now I don't feel like it...  It's so hot here.  Supposedly, when the (late) autumn actually starts, it rains a lot. I love rain, that'll be cool with me. If it never gets really cold here, going home might be a shock after all.  I guess a couple weeks of cold/snow will be nice before I go to Spain though... That feels like it's so far away....  In reality, I'll only be here for 12 more weeks (no, I haven't been counting down the days, I just did a quick count just now). Wow, 12 weeks? Really?  With a week and a half off for "fall break."  I just started classes though!  I guess they really mean it when they say "intensive" classes...


I want Mexican food. I looked at the "foreign foods" section in the grocery store (granted it was the little grocery store, not the big one) and they barely have anything in the way of Mexican food.  Though, they still have way more Old El Paso stuff than I've ever seen in once place at home.  I would totally offer to make my host family dinner, and then make them burritos or something... But I think I'd be too worried they wouldn't like it...  It'd be so different from what they're used to eating.  (They'd need an appetizer, bread with the meal, fancy French cheese afterwards, those just don't go with burritos...)  Just like, I wish I could make a big pot of soup but they don't eat soup as a meal. They eat it as an appetizer.  Besides, I think the ingredients for the stuff I would want to make would be too expensive because they are foreign foods....


I don't really know. What I do know is that it's almost dinner time and I'm starving, I hope we get to eat soon.


Also... My friend gave me all the songs from the new Lady Antebellum CD. I love Lady Antebellum....

Emotions...

You know, the French see things different...


I told my host parents about how, before I came, I was warned by so many people that French people do not like Americans.  My host family didn't get that at all. My host dad said that the biggest impression most French people have about Americans is from the World Wars, when America saved everyone's butts.  He said he doesn't see why anyone would particularly not like Americans unless they'd had bad personal experiences with them.


The two of them told me about how, a while back when they were flying to some South American country, they had a long layover in New York City. And they were just shocked by the things they saw. People were so helpful. They'd see families going to pick up family members with balloons that say things like "We Love You" and "Welcome Home Daddy" and that kind of thing was very different to them, because in France you don't show your emotions openly.  They said they think it is just that many French people are afraid of being ridiculed, and taking balloons or signs that openly display your emotions would definitely get you ridiculed.


My host parents said that overall they just find Americans to be big babies (with good connotations): always smiling and laughing, always in a good mood. They envy the ability that Americans have to be friendly and (as I said before) to be unafraid to show emotions.  I guess I'm glad they have that impression of Americans.  I'm sure we are all aware that there are very narrow-minded Americans out there who are probably not quite so friendly.


I've been observing French people though (after all that's what I'm here for) and they just do so many things different than we do.  I normally wouldn't think to say hello to the bus driver when I get on the bus, or to say goodbye when I get off. You literally get off the bus halfway back -- nowhere near the driver.  Also, when they come home in the evening or whatever and someone else is home, they always say hello to them to let them know who it is and that they're there (I don't know why but for some reason this seems strange to me, so when I get home I specifically go find someone and say hello rather than just calling out to the house in general).


And then there's the whole concept of the "bise," the commonly known (and commonly practiced) French greeting where two people kiss each other once on each cheek as a greeting.  Most people do this the first time they see each other every single day.  The concept of shaking hands or just giving hugs is pretty strange to them -- also they think our hug is the equivalent of their bise.  But we don't hug people we are just meeting for the first time, and we don't hug everyone we know every day when we see them.  I think a combination of handshakes and hugs is more equivalent to the bise, one being more formal than the other.  I don't know.  I just think it's strange that, to us a kiss on the cheek is definitely reserved for people you are close to, but we are the ones who openly show emotions more easily than French people.


French culture. That's what I wanted. I'm definitely getting it.


Oh and one last thing: I'm not sure they find it acceptable to go around singing... It makes me afraid to do so.

First day of classes

I don't like trying to type blog posts at school because I have to use my iPod and I can't do any formatting. However, I have two hours of free time and I didn't really post yesterday.


So my classes started today. It's very interesting. It's so amazing to me that two people with different origins and backgrounds can communicate via this second language that both are still learning. In my group there are people from Venezuela, Bolivia, China, Korea (yes, I am generalizing. He only said he's Korean, not the north or south part), Japan, Greece, Poland, Niger... People who don't speak English. I had a decently long conversation with one of the Polish girls. And no one has the option of explaining what they want to say in their own language like they would have had in language classes at home.


I have a "media" elective class where they mix people from 3 different language levels. You can really tell who is in which level though. It seems to me like those placement exams were fairly efficient. But the 3 levels in the class are still advanced enough that we can all for the most part understand each other, I just think it'll be harder for some to clearly understand and express themselves... I feel like we're going to be spending a lot of time in the same class every week but I guess that's all for the best... These classes aren't going to be too bad. I hope.


I thought maybe I should talk about food a little, for Alyssa. Did you know that in France they have every flavor of yogurt imaginable? I had pistachio yogurt, chocolate, caramel, someone found coffee flavored yogurt... I swear, if you just look hard enough I bet you could find anything. And it's yogurt, not pudding. I love pistachio yogurt....


I am going to post more later because this is so hard to type on, but there's a little update for you.

I got mail.

Dear Mommy:
I got a card in the mail from one of your Salem friends. It was a very nice card. I like getting mail.
As for this whole care package thing we discussed, I could really use some plain hypoallergenic earrings. They don't have them here and I'm not about to go buy three pairs of expensive earrings. So that would be nice, please.
I can't remember what else I had in mind. If I remember I'll email or text you.
Love, Angie.

I'm bored.

Hello. Welcome to my Sunday. I don't have much to do today, and there's no one online to talk to, and I have homework that I'm avoiding. That's pretty much all there is to it.  I can't wait until my literature class drops to only once a week so that we actually have time to do our homework between classes.  I just did half of my homework (which took forever) and now I still have the rest to do. Yay, intensive French courses!


So, this weekend I had my first taste of French ice cream. In Bayonne, there was a little ice cream shop across from the chocolate shop that we'd been at (oh dear, chocolate is another story entirely. I'll get to that next) and I got some violet flavored ice cream. It was really good. Unexpectedly good.  Who ever thought of eating violets? Yesterday, on our way home from San Sebastian, we stopped in Saint Jean de Luz, a French beach town, and we found an ice cream shop there too. I had pistachio ice cream, coffee ice cream, and strawberry ice cream. All very good.  I still need to find Georgio's blue ice cream truck here in Pau, because it supposedly has the best ice cream in the entire town. I guess I need to get into town at the right times... I think I'll be in class at the "right time" tomorrow, which is sad because it sounds so good.


Alright, about the chocolate. Bayonne used to have 35 chocolate shops. They used to have more chocolate shops in Bayonne than in all of Belgium, at one point. Now, supposedly there are only 5 really good chocolate shops left, and 4 of them are all on the same street.  Of the three that were pointed out to us, one has a store in Pau so we decided not to go there. We did go to a shop though, called Paries, that created a kind of kanougas which are "the best caramels in the world" (according to some New York press) so I had to buy some of those. They are delicious.  Then we went across the street to another shop, Chocolat Cazenave, that does this frothed hot chocolate drink that's really famous, a chocolat mousseux.   That was extremely delicious too. I'm glad it's not in Pau, because it was definitely not cheap.


Yes, I just talked a ton about food again. I'm thinking maybe I should continue.  I just thought of a couple new things to talk about.


When we were in Bayonne, our program paid for our lunch (I guess technically we paid the program to pay for our lunch).  We went to a Basque restaurant called Le Victor Hugo.  It was, of course, a French Basque meal so it was the typical three-course lunch.  This lovely restaurant gave me the first salad I've had in France that I actually liked.  It had three separate-but-equal-sized piles of lettuce, shredded carrots, thinly sliced cucumbers and sliced tomatoes.  I normally do not like cucumbers but they were very good in this salad (the tomatoes not so much).  I'm not sure what it was about the salad that I liked but I do know it was something to do with the dressing. Can't any French person make a decent salad dressing?   The second (main) course of the meal was a piece of chicken (skin + bone included) which I couldn't eat very well because I can't pull chicken off a bone with a fork and knife, a ball of rice and a red sauce that had probably tomato, onion and red bell peppers cooked in it.  That was very good. And then for dessert we got this cake thingy, I don't really know how to describe it because I don't know what it was.  It was good though.


The next day for lunch, they also paid for that (kind of) but apparently Spain doesn't have large cafes that can seat 50 people, like France does. So they gave us each 10 euros to spend on lunch.  Jennifer, Susanne, Schyler and I found a Spanish restaurant called "La Vaca" (The Cow) where they had burgers and sandwiches and such.  It was a very interesting place. Susanne got a Spanish tortilla on a sandwich (and I had to explain to her that a Spanish tortilla is more like a potato omelet, not a flat piece of cooked flour/corn dough) which looked pretty good, Sky got a burger that I didn't even see because it disappeared too fast, Jennifer got a weird sandwich with this flat piece of pork, a cooked piece of red bell pepper, and some "local cheese" that she let me taste, it was interesting. I got a delicious sandwich with bacon (European bacon is VERY different), green bell pepper, mushrooms and cheese, all cooked and melted together, in a long baguette-shaped sandwich.  It was delicious, and then there was "ketchup" on the table that Jennifer, Susanne and I put on our sandwiches, but it didn't taste like American ketchup at all, it actually reminded me of Arby's special sauce.  It was really good.  It's sad that it's in Spain, because we all said we'd definitely go back if we could.


There. I just wrote another entire post about nothing but food (and a little bit of school talk, I suppose).  I told my host mom I'd probably go for a walk or a jog or something today, but it's so hot and I had forgotten I had homework, so I might as well just stay and do homework.  Yay, homework!  Tomorrow the IEFE (Institut d'Etudes Françaises pour Etudiants Etrangers, or Institute of French Study for Foreign Students) is buying us breakfast and putting us into our groups based on level of French (as decided by placement tests) and I think they're going to try to encourage us to get to know our group. Then I think we get our French schedules, and I'm pretty sure language classes start Wednesday or Thursday.


On a final note: I use parenthesis a lot (maybe I'm better at explaining things that way).

Spain!

Alright, so I'm in Spain.  Actually, the Spanish Basque country. We stayed the night in San Sebastian. And the beach is literally right down the street from me.  Last night Jennifer and I walked to the beach and then walked all the way along the beach to the other side of the city and then wandered downtown trying to find somewhere to buy a swimsuit (we didn't find anything).


Yesterday we also stopped in Bayonne and took a tour. Bayonne is the largest city in the French Basque country.  I really liked it.  I learned a lot from the tour, too.  For example, I never knew the ruling family of England was French for 300 years. Also, 45% of the English language is French.  I also learned the origin and history of the middle finger gesture. It's lengthy so I won't go into it right now but ask me if you want to know. It's nothing that you'd expect.  Lastly, there are legends that say bayonets originated in Bayonne (I'm not sure if they're true though).


Last night, Jennifer and I ordered a pizza from room service (and then had to go pay the front desk so they wouldn't charge to our room) and I'm pretty sure that was the best pizza I've ever had. It was so good.  Our jeans were soaked from walking in the ocean so we came back to the hotel and put on pajamas before we even thought of going to eat....  You can't go eat in pajamas. But the pizza was delicious, and I would like to order 15 more of those pizzas to take home.


I like Spain. It's nice. (Actually, I think I just like the beach.)

Blah.

I had quite a few things planned out to write, but now I can't remember them. I'm exhausted. And I'm not packed for Spain yet, we leave at 8am tomorrow morning.  Jennifer and I went into town today, and went to find somewhere to eat, and then we had trouble finding her a bus home. I feel really bad because I left without making sure she had a way home, but I left her my bus map and she seemed to be heading in the right direction. I couldn't hang around, the last bus to take me home was about to leave.  Her bus lines run 'til midnight, my last one came at 8:26.


When I was standing at my bus stop, trying to help Jennifer figure out where to go, this older lady next to me heard us speaking English and after Jennifer left she started talking to me.  She asked if I was from here and I told her I was from the United States and she was really excited to meet someone from the United States.  She asked me a few things and then she got a phone call, and she told the person on the phone that she met an American girl at the bus stop. I guess the person on the other end didn't believe her.  She seemed like a really nice lady.


Mom: I forgot my flip-flops at home. Do you know where they are??


Jennifer and I have plane tickets to London for fall break (thanks to Mommy) and now we just need to find somewhere cheap to stay.  I'm pretty excited to go though.  I don't think we need to do anything expensive there, we could just do a lot of walking and exploring. And eating. That'll hopefully be one of the most expensive things.  No matter what, I think it'll be fun.


For the last week I've been wishing I had a scale, because I am hoping I'm losing weight and I wanted to see for sure. Today I realized there's one in my bathroom.  It says I've lost approximately 9 pounds since I last weighed myself, at the doctor's office 3 weeks ago.  It might have just been all the stair-climbing and walking that I did in Paris, but whatever it was I hope it keeps up like it is.  If I become overly obsessed with my newly-discovered scale, someone needs to smack me or something. But so far, I'm really likin' the scale. It's my friend. (Until my weight stops going down and I get frustrated with the scale and throw it out the window.)


I'm tired. I said that already, kind of.  I could really go for some white chocolate macadamia cookies.  Instead I'll go to bed. Goodnight!

This update is for my mommy.

(and anyone else who wants to know, I suppose)


Mommy. I talked to my host mother tonight at dinner.  My host father, too. We talked about music. My host father was appalled that I don't know who Joe Cocker is.  And they wanted to know what kind of music I like and I told them I like country music and Claudie said "OH J'ADORE LA MUSIQUE COUNTRY" and then my host father told me that if I have country music on my computer I should put it on a thumb drive to put on Claudie's computer.  Anyways. Conversing happened. Stuff went down. The end.

Let's talk about food again...

I had kangaroo for lunch today. It was good, I enjoyed it. At first I thought it sounded too weird and I didn't want it, but then I realized it was that or some kind of fish that didn't look good to me (I was at one of the school cafeterias, which is far better than any school cafeteria I've had at home, and much cheaper as well). I know, you'd think fish sounds like a safer choice than kangaroo but I decided to try something new. How often do you get the chance to eat kangaroo?


I took my language placement test today. I don't know the results yet.  There was a big written part and then we had to go talk to a professor who would decide how well we speak. The lady I talked to was nice and I think I know I did well on the speaking part, I'm just hoping I did decent on the written part.


Tomorrow I have no classes and then Friday we're leaving for the Basque country and San Sebastian in Spain. I'm actually very excited to go. It'll give me a chance to exercise my Spanish knowledge, I guess. I'll probably fail at that but it's okay because we'll only be there for a couple days.  We're also going to Saint Jean-de-Luz, which is a nice French beach town.  Yay, so excited!  Tomorrow, since I have no classes, I think I'm going to go into town and find Jennifer and maybe make plans for some traveling that we'd like to do. She said she'd like to go to Paris with me when I go to meet up with Mom, because she flew in to Pau without getting to visit Paris.  I'm just glad I've found a travel partner, I didn't want to ride a five and a half hour train by myself.  Jennifer would also like to visit London, so we're going to discuss the possibility of finding a cheap way to visit London during fall break.


Last night, I had dinner with just my host father. He had just returned from taking their two children to get settled into school in Belgium.  The claim was that my host mom's favorite show was on and she had to be out there to watch it, but I'm wondering if she ate separate from us so that I would talk. Either way, we ate just the two of us in the kitchen with the door closed, and I sat down there and talked to him for the duration of dinner and then for maybe an hour or two afterwards, as well.  I'm not sure what it is. Why I can talk to my host dad just fine but I am too afraid to talk to my host mom. I'm kind of glad Paul and Caroline went away for college, too.  Either way, I talked and that was the important thing. SEE, I'M NOT JUST HOLING MYSELF AWAY IN MY ROOM AND AVOIDING AT ALL COSTS!


This may seem a little redundant, but I like it when I get a chance to speak French in town.  Today, Stephanie, Shelby (the guy Shelby. We have a girl one and a guy one) and I went to the bookstore to get our literature text books.  I let Stephanie do the talking because she wants to practice as much as possible. Of course, she struggles a lot and when she doesn't understand something that someone says, I repeat it to her in a way I think she can understand, or if she says something that isn't quite clear I repeat it for the person she is talking to.  Today at the bookstore, we found a person to ask about the book. It's not a book they usually carry.  She asked him as best as she could whether or not they have the book, to which he said no and told us that we could order it (Just before that, we had talked to another lady who had said the same thing). She said something like, "okay thanks for the help," and they were getting ready to walk away so I had to step in and explain to the guy (just as I'd done with the lady before) that our teacher had ordered several of the books for us and she had already received the phone call saying they had come in (which is the point where the last lady had told us no again, and placed an order for us).  This guy was much more helpful, and asked for our teacher's name and was able to find the books for us and cancel the order we'd just made.  Shelby and Stephanie decided that I know the magic word...


I am already finding that after being here for two weeks, I can speak a lot better. Much more easily.  I'm having an easier time picking up what other people say, too.  I always have a hard time hearing, because I swear I'm already half deaf.  But if I'm listening, I can pick up what people say fairly easily. It was a little frustrating at the bookstore when we were trying to talk to the first (very unhelpful) lady who was talking too fast for Stephanie to understand, so Stephanie said "slowly" and I told the lady (who didn't understand Stephanie's "slowly), "She wants you to speak slower, please" and the lady looks at me and says what she said before super slowly. Look, lady. I understood you fine, talk to the girl here who is trying to learn more.  I understand though, that when you're working in customer service it's difficult to deal with someone that you can't communicate with very well, and you just want to get your job done as quick as possible.  It's just amazing how many nice people in this town think it's cool that you are trying to learn, and they try to talk to you so that you can understand and practice.


I'm so glad I came here.

Weird dream...

Dear Alyssa:
Last night I had a dream that you were sleeping in the computer room, and you had your hair up in a ponytail. And I was acting silly and thought it'd be fun to cut off your ponytail. I cut it to like an inch long. Then Dad started to come down the stairs and you started to wake up and I was so scared that I was going to get in a whole ton of trouble. So I grabbed up all the hair I had cut off and I hid it. And then I followed you as you ran to the bathroom and took if down, and you loved it. Of course, it was horribly uneven and we had to fix it but you still loved it and I didn't get in trouble. Thankfully.  There was more to the dream before all that (that was actually the very end) but I don't remember any of it.
Love, Angie


I'm going to see about going to help out in an English classroom. I know they said they needed native English speakers, but they haven't really said anything more about it. I think I'd like to help out in a classroom full of French people learning English. I'm good at English grammar too (not just French and Spanish). It might help me with my shyness too...


In other news, I have my language placement test tomorrow. I'll be fine... I came home early today so I could study up on some things (refresh my mind of all the grammar I've learned in the past few years).  I don't know though, I'm kind of ready for a nap....

Fantastique!

I had an awesome day today.  Didn't do much, but it was awesome.  Though, my legs are super sore and I ate too much.


This morning, I went to town, just like any other school day... Went to my phonetics one-on-one, and then a boring orientation meeting... After that, Jennifer (who is from Shelley, Idaho) and I went for a little walk. We went to the Leclerc (big shopping center with a supermarket) to find food but didn't see anything we wanted, so we walked to the Carrefour (which is also a supermarket but has a smaller shopping center attached to it) and split a pizza at the pizza place there. It was really good. Then Jennifer and I were talking about Paris and London and traveling, and we decided to go find Teresa. We didn't end up finding her, so we sat in the Faculté des Lettres building and talked until I had to leave for class and she left with some others to go to a flea market.


Class was alright, we're talking about Tristan and Isolde right now, the original French version, so that's fine. After class, Stephanie and I took the bus downtown and went to try to find Jennifer, but she never showed up. It was a little early for dinner (6pm in France is too early. Shops aren't open yet) so we walked down towards the castle and then from there down to the river and then to this little park to look at the pretty bridge. Then we hiked back up. It was a long walk and took quite a bit of time but it was nice. After that, we went back to look for where the kebab place was supposed to be but we didn't see it. We thought we'd stop at the crêpe place since we were headed that way but they were closed on Mondays (as many places in France are). So we wandered a bit instead and happened along this little Sandwicherie on a little side road.


This sandwich shop smelled so amazing that we just had to go there.  It was a tiny shop and we wanted to sit inside so we grabbed a small table near the kitchen area, and we placed our order to a lady who appeared to be the only one running the place.  For six euros, I got a plate with my Croque Monsieur sandwich (I had yet to try one) and a huge pile of fries and a salad.  And then Stephanie and I split a crêpe for dessert and had a small cup of hot chocolate each. It was a delicious meal, and such a small, friendly place. As we got up to leave, the 3 ladies at the other table plus the lady running the place started talking to us and asking questions, so we stood there for a bit talking to them. The whole experience in this little shop was great, and we will definitely be returning there.


At the end of the night I took a taxi home, because it was probably around 10pm. It's not cheap to take a taxi at night, of course, but the buses stop at 8 and there's no way I'm walking home in the dark by myself...  Either way, the taxi driver was pretty nice too.


And the very last thing about today that was nice was the weather. It rained a bit, and it was nice and cool, which was such a nice contrast to the heat and humidity we've been having. Besides, I got to use my purple umbrella.


A little note to my mother about the whole care package thing we discussed: I could use a bottle of my favorite shampoo, conditioner and soap.  I suppose I could buy those things here but I like what I use!  I still have some left over for now that will do, but more would be nice. Love you!

Some things you just don't question

Like what I had for dinner tonight. I know we had soup for an appetizer, I don't know what kind of soup we had but it was very good. And then the main dish was something baked. It had cauliflower and some type of meatballs and cheese on top, but that's about all I know. It was the same thing we had last night though and it didn't hurt me then so I don't suppose it will hurt me now.


I made plans with Stephanie to have dinner in town tomorrow night. I'm going to try out this taxi thing.  Someone said they had amazing kebabs in town, and I have to try to find them.  Kebabs sound like something I have to try.  


So did falafels, when we were in Paris. There are quite a few places in Paris that I wish I'd gone to, so I might have to drag my mother back to them (I love you Mommy!). There were some yummy-looking bakeries, chocolate shops and ice cream/gelato shops.  I've been told that the ice cream here is amazing as well.  I have to try it!  And I just like gelato. That's all. 

Photonics.

I'm tired of class already.  At least I am doing my homework, though.  After language classes start, elective classes will be cut down to meeting only once a week (for two and a half hours), so I'm not sure if I want language classes to start or not. I don't know if the classes I am supposed to be in will be grammar-focused or not. I like grammar. So I'm hoping they are.


We also have these phonetics sessions (which James calls photonics and it drives me nuts but I'm not going to correct him. Someone else can). Some are one-on-one and some are group sessions.  I kind of liked the one-on-one session that I had. My next and last one-on-one session is tomorrow.  And then we have a total of 5 group sessions, three of which have already passed.  I guess they should be helpful, but when I go to speak I'm too busy trying to think of something to say to apply any phonetics knowledge to it. These phonetics classes would have been helpful 4 years ago right after I started.


I made my host mom feel bad last night. She made me cry. It probably wasn't really anything to cry over, I'm just weak and cry over stupid things. She basically asked me why I came to France and why I chose to live with a host family. And if my reasons for doing those things was to learn the language better, why do I stay in my room all the time? I understand where she's coming from, but it's extremely hard for me to go downstairs and strike up conversation in French with someone I don't know, when I can't even do that in English with someone I do know.  I'm just in general not very good at talking to people.  I figured if I just eat dinner with them every night, and let myself grow a little more accustomed to them, then maybe I'll be a little more comfortable talking to them. I've only been here for a week...  I go down there for dinner, I listen to them talk to each other, and when they talk to me I talk to them too. And I go down and ask them for the things I need (for example yesterday afternoon I had to go ask where the broom is because I have a hardwood floor in my room and I shed like a dog).  


I guess it wasn't really her or her questions that made me cry, it was my attempt to answer. Mainly because I know these are problems that I've always had and they are part of what I was hoping to change in myself by coming here.  But they're not going to change on their own and I guess I'm not really doing my part in working towards that...  I told her I was sorry (for being unsociable) and she said no she is sorry, because she had just assumed I was unhappy in their home.  I'm not sure I understand. I don't know. I'm trying, and that's about as good as it gets for now.


My host mom also told me that I should go out with friends at night, to bars or parties or something. I just don't want to. I don't want to go sit at a bar where nearly everyone will be drinking except me and maybe a couple others just because I'm not interested in beer and that's all they have (or I don't know how to order anything else because I don't know what names of drinks are in French). Not to mention that the friends that I'd prefer to go out with don't go out at night either. (There are others who do go out at night but I'm not interested in hanging out with people who are using illegal drugs...)  I don't know, maybe the next day off that I have, I'll go for a nice long walk or something. But I'm usually exhausted when I get home from spending the entire day walking around town, I don't feel like going out at night.  Not to mention the bus stops at 8pm, and I don't know how to call a taxi.  I guess I'll look it up... They're probably not cheap...


Don't... get all worried reading this. I'm doing fine and I'm working on the things I need to work on, I'm just a little frustrated at the moment.  On a lighter note, it's been raining on-and-off for the past two days and Friday night we had the most awesome thunderstorm.  The window on my bedroom is the kind that is right on the roof and so it's at an angle, and the rain hits it and sounds really cool.

Soup.

I am definitely in a soup mood right now.  I could go for some split pea soup, with some bread on the side. Or beef stew with bread. You know, this French bread would be really good with those soups. Or, some taco soup or whatever you call that stuff where we just take all the cans and dump them in (with tortilla chips, of course. Not bread).  That sounds good too.  Delicious homemade chicken noodle soup.  Or homemade clam chowder. Or pozole, or chili even. Ooh I should stop talking about food.

Louis Quatorze: Le Roi Soleil

I wonder why Louis XIV was called the Sun King... I'll have to look it up later.


Today has been a very long day... Actually I think all days are long in France...  Well, all days that you leave the house. I think I left the house at nine this morning and I just got home, around eight at night.  I don't feel like I did much, even. I got to school and went to my phonetic session. After that, Teresa and I went to her apartment and hung out until my class time. Class was from one to three, then I went back to Teresa's apartment and we went and got Alejandra -- who wasn't ready to go yet, so we sat around her apartment. Then we took the bus downtown where we met up with Anne and Jamie and Kate, who were still waiting for Aaron and Susanne. We sat around for a while and then at six most of us headed to the creperie where we were planning on having (or attempting to have) delicious crepes, only to find out that the restaurant didn't open for dinner until 6:45 (I'm telling you, they really stick to the whole "eating late" thing) and by that time I figured it wasn't worth missing my bus for, so I walked back to the middle of downtown (grabbed a sandwich on the way) and then stood around waiting for the bus until 7:28 (but it was a little late so maybe 7:30) and then finally the bus dropped me off at my stop at 7:50ish...  (I probably would have had time to eat crepes but I just didn't want to risk being stuck in town all night.) Honestly, even after typing it all out I still feel like I didn't do anything today.  I'm tired.


The flower in my header picture is my favorite Martha Washington geranium, at home. It's so pretty when it's covered in flowers.
Dear Mom and Dad:
Please don't forget to bring my lovely plant in when it gets cold, and love it and water it and cut off dead leaves. I don't want it to die!
Love, Angie.


Well, I think that's all I have to say for today. Wait, no it isn't.


So I was walking across campus towards the dorms and this guy caught up to me and stopped me. (This would be one prime reason why you should never walk alone in France.) He said something in French that I didn't understand, so I asked him to repeat and he said "Oh, you're English"  (French people in Pau apparently can't tell the difference between American and British). So then he says something about money, and shows me the cash he has in his hand. And I was confused so he said, "Look, I think you are beautiful woman. And I want to kiss you. For five minutes."  I said, "No." So he said, "Are you sure?" and I said, "Yes."  And then he started to ask me other things and I turned and walked away. I'm not sure if he wanted me to pay him  for a kiss, or if he wanted to pay me for a kiss but YEAH RIGHT BUDDY, KEEP WALKING!  It was certainly rather... interesting. They did warn us that guys in France are a lot more forward about what they want and that you have to be careful how you act and what you wear. They also said that in France, giving someone your phone number is like telling them you want them to call you. Constantly.  I guess if you give someone your phone number they will call you every chance they get. I don't think I'll be doing that.


Alright. Now I'm done with all I had to say. I'm staying home tomorrow. Probably all day. Anne and a few others are going on an 8 hour hike, and it sounds like a lot of fun but I don't know if I could handle 8 hours of walking. I guess I will have to wait and join them for a shorter hike.  All I can say for now though, is thank God it's Friday.

Picture Updates

Okay, first of all I have to post this picture. Yes, it's a mirror picture, but there are reasons for that. 


1. I wanted to show you my lovely French bathroom. Obviously. 
2. I wanted to show you my camera. Isn't it cute?
3. I wanted to show you all that I can actually smile.
4. I wanted to show you my wavy hair that I got from braiding it.
5. My bestest friend in the whole wide world wanted a picture of one of my scarves! So there you have it.

Do I look French yet? Probably not. Oh well.


I also wanted to mention that hey look, my face looks a little clearer than it did previously. I'm trying to stay on top of the whole "acne" thing...  


Also, I've finished uploading all of my pictures. I added one to the main France album, and then the rest are in new albums so I think you should be able to figure those out. (The one I added in the main one is actually a picture of me, for those of you who prefer to only see pictures of me.)

Good Morning!

I got up too late today to catch the bus in for my group phonetic session. Shame on me, I know, but it's alright. It was the only thing I had to do today, so I guess I have the day to myself now.


I know a few people wanted my address here and I haven't gotten around to sending that out yet so here you have it:


Angela Beck
c/o Ryan Findley OR Robina Muller (you only have to put one of their names on there, doesn't matter which)
USAC France
Bureau 125 Faculté des Lettres
Université de Pau
64000 Pau, FRANCE


I like getting mail. Feel free to send me stuff.


I'm thinking that I should have brought some certain things that never even crossed my mind before.  One girl brought a ton of beef jerky, because she loves beef jerky.  Why didn't I think of that?!  Another girl's mom just sent her a care package with Reese's peanut butter cups in them.  Ehh, I like kitkats better anyways and they have those here so I guess I'm okay on that front.  And then there's the Dr Pepper!  I actually thought about sticking a couple cans in my suitcase before I left, because we had some at home. But I decided against it.  Now I really want some.


I think the fact that they eat so late here makes sense.  We eat dinner around 8:30 or 9, and yesterday I had to get dinner on my own because none of my family was home and I ate around 6:30. I shouldn't have done that, an hour later I was hungry again but there are no snacks to eat.  I guess they don't snack at all in France. You eat three meals and that's it.  Nothing in between. And as far as meals go, breakfast is something small accompanied by coffee or tea. Lunch is a typical lunch meal, always accompanied by bread, and always finished off with coffee/tea, cheese and a small dessert (like a yogurt or a pudding cup or a piece of fruit). Dinner is almost always an appetizer, a main dish, sides and more bread, again finished off with coffee/tea, cheese and a small dessert.  I actually have not been having any coffee, tea, cheese or dessert, nor have I been having breakfast, although I should start taking those.


Seriously, all I talk about on here is food. I should change the name of my blog to The "I'm Obsessed With Food" Blog.


What else can I talk about? Hmmm. School seems easy enough so far. The one class that I've started isn't too terrible, and after the language classes start the elective classes will only be meeting once a week. I think if I can get through the first two weeks of intensive elective classes, I'll be okay for the rest of the semester. I actually can't wait for language classes to start, but I really need to study up on my grammar and vocabulary a little because I'm worried about where those placement tests will put me.  If they place me lower than what I signed up for, I'll only be getting credits for classes I already took so it won't get me ahead at all.  I'll work it out somehow. I'm going to email my French adviser back at Boise State and ask her if she knows of any websites where I can study up. Either way, it is what it is and I'll be fine no matter what happens.


Oh, I thought of another thing.  People smoke like chimneys here. The university and high schools even have 15 minutes breaks in the middle of classes so that the students can go outside and smoke. And some buildings, they don't even have to go outside. There's cigarette butts all over the sidewalks and up on the Eiffel Tower in some of the pictures I have you can see the cigarette butts, and public parks, and everywhere at home where you normally wouldn't see people smoking.  I kind of expected that but some of the people in the program didn't, and they were shocked.  Others, on the other hand, were content because they themselves are smokers and they like that there are fewer restrictions.  I find it amusing that French cigarette cartons tell you that you should have a balanced diet.


I'm sorry if I bore you all. My blog posts are not very exciting or entertaining.  I'll try to find something more exciting to write about.

Why do I even need a title?

I got a key to my house!  Only because my host family are all going to be gone all day today, so Claudie finally got around to giving me a key and showing me how the lock works.  The locks are a lot different here, you have to turn the key all the way around two whole times to lock/unlock it. I guess that's a safer way to lock things though.  Claudie told me to keep the key, and don't lose it.  I don't usually lose keys (except inside the house) so I don't think that'll be a problem.  I put my new key on the pretty key chain thingy that my mommy gave me right before I left. It's not going anywhere.


I took note of gas prices today. Unleaded is 1,56 euro for a liter.  Which is over 8 dollars a gallon.  With the way Americans complain about gas prices, imagine if it costed as much as it costs here. In other news, I found more cheap Coke. A 4-pack for approximately 80 cents USD per bottle.  I make it sound like all I do is sit around and drink Coke, with the way I talk about it. But really I'm not drinking that much. I just keep an eye out for that kind of thing because their drinks are insanely priced and it's good to know there are some places to buy a decently-priced drink.


I thought I would pick up a sandwich and a little salad for dinner tonight and it ended up that the salad was mediocre and the sandwich was inedible. I ate most of the sandwich but I'm hungry. I should have bought some dessert. Like chocolate pudding. Or coffee-flavored yogurt.  Oh, I had strawberry yogurt yesterday.  That little bit of information is for those of you that know I don't like yogurt. I ate all of it, too.


Today, the little light on my cell phone came on. I didn't even know there was a light on my cell phone, until i pulled it out of my pocket during class to check the time and there was a light on the top, like a flashlight maybe? I don't really know. I have no idea how to turn it on or how to turn it off. I had to turn the phone itself off to get the light to go off.  I've never had a cell phone this cheap. You can't change the volume, you can't change the ringtones, there's not a lot that you really can do.  Which is alright, I guess. I'm probably never even going to use it really, but it's nice to have in case of emergency or something. And to use as a clock, apparently. And a flashlight? Although, somehow it has an FM radio on it. And a camera. It's weird, the things this cheap phone actually has.  (I just realized I don't know how to turn on the camera either.)  It also has an audio player, so I guess I can put music on it, and it has a game. Called Copter. Which I just lost 3 seconds into because I don't know how to play.


My final words for the day are these:  I really miss my cat.

Fish.

I keep forgetting to post the pictures of my fish. It was actually Guillaume's fish that he abandoned here. He's in my room though. I don't know his name. He's like a giant goldfish. I get to feed him every other day. Yay!

Yeah, someone mentioned that his tank is a little small. And dirty. I can't help it though.

He has an enormously long tail. He's hiding it though.

Also, I'm lazy and haven't gotten around to uploading the rest of my Paris pictures. I will definitely get right to that.

Go Ahead, Comment

I'm going to keep this short today because my post was super-long yesterday.  First day of electives was today, I only have one elective so my schedule for the first day shouldn't be too hectic. I was mistaken before, language placement exams will be the 27th of September.  However, we have all been attending one-on-one phonetic sessions and group phonetic sessions, to help us with our French pronunciation. I had my first one-on-one session today, I actually really liked it. It was extremely helpful. A lot of people came out of the room saying they really didn't like it.


I would also like to take a moment to address all of the comments I have received, because someone accused me of not reading them.  So: (1) Yes, it sucks that you did not fit in my carry-on but don't feel bad because no one else did either. (2) Yes, I have been using the ATM to get money, it's been working very well. Thank you for depositing some money into my account. (3) I know that I'm a typical American but sometimes you just have no choice (like peanuts on an airline. That's an obvious one, come on) and besides, I won't be back in the States for 4 more months. (4) I can't make orange chicken at home because I don't think they want me using their kitchen just yet but later I will ask them. (5) I don't know if I have people in France following my blog. Yes, I look at comments.


I have been trying to find something to add salt to at lunch every day.  I generally don't add salt or pepper to anything but the French don't add that stuff in the cooking process... And ever since I was throwing up Friday night (my mother thinks this was due to low sodium) I don't want to be sick again...  Although, I do currently have a very lovely cold. (My poor host family. They managed to get someone who is always full of problems. I was sick Friday night, then I got a cold, I'm having a bad allergic reaction on my wrist from my watch, which is sad because now I can't wear it anymore and I liked having a watch on...)


Edit: This is long too.....

Pas de Probleme

So when you're in a foreign country, there are certain things you probably shouldn't write on your blog.  When I first got here to Pau, I didn't think I would like Pau at all, and I didn't think I was going to like my host family.  They really intimidated me, and for some reason their speech is a lot more complicated than it needs to be. When I dined with Anne's host family I could understand their dinner conversation very easily, but my own family I can never understand them when they talk, even when they're trying to talk to me. Also, they never understand me when I try to respond to them. They look at me funny and ask me additional questions.  And I didn't think my host mom liked me very much because she was always grumpy around me.


Today I had a very good day. I went to town with Stephanie, Matthew (who is from Moscow, Idaho) and James (who is from Boise) after our second half of orientation. We went and got prepaid cell phones and exchanged numbers, and then we went to that Irish pub that I visited the other night. (Except this time it was the middle of the afternoon so it was much calmer. I got a coke, Stephanie had water, and the boys ventured for some Belgian and Irish beers. Nothing too exciting.) After that we walked to the funicular, rode it down to the Pau train station and bought age 12-25 discount cards. They cost 49 euro and are valid for a year, they can give us a youth discount anywhere between 25% and 60% depending on what day and time we get tickets for. We also went to H&M because Mathieu did not bring shorts to France and Pau does not start getting decently cold weather until mid-November. After that we caught the bus back to the University and then I went to the grocery store with Stephanie.


The point was, I got to practice my French a lot all day, because poor James doesn't really know any French at all. I helped him get his phone and his card at the train station. In addition to that, the lady behind the counter when I bought my own card at the train station didn't know a single word of English, and she didn't understand my Idaho driver's license (In France, my birthday should be written 11/01/1992. When I told her that it's the eleventh of January in 1992 she pointed at my card and said first of November?  She was just a little confused.  Also, James doesn't know his address and had to keep asking me for it. I know it because I live down the street from him and I remembered that I'm at 9, Anne is at 11 and James is at 6.  When I told James' lady his street address, my lady got confused and thought we lived at the same address).  Then there was the lady at the register in the grocery store. She seemed to really appreciate the fact that we are American students trying to learn French, and she was conversing with us to help us out. When Stephanie apologized for her misuse of French the lady told her that it's okay because she's learning.


Overall the French people are very nice, and very easy to talk to (part of the reason my family frustrated me so much. I seemed to be able to talk to anyone else, but my own host family I couldn't understand or talk to). But when I got home today, I went in and told my host dad that I got my phone and gave him my number.  He is the one in the family that I was least intimidated by.  And I had dinner with them, like I have been doing.  Last night after dinner they explained to me that they would give me my two meals a week and if I wanted to participate in extra meals they would mark them on the calendar and each Sunday I could pay 3 euros for each extra meal. Which is cheap, about 4 dollars a meal, and I get the benefit of being with the family, listening to them speak French, and tonight they actually talked to me a little (which they hadn't been doing much before).  So I guess I'm a little glad that they speak more complicated than others, because if I can catch on to that and keep up with it, I could maybe learn to speak like that too.  I don't know if that would happen in just a semester but I will definitely improve.


So this morning I decided that whether I like it or not, I'm going to love Pau, because I'm here for a semester and I need it, so I should make the best of it. But after the good day I had today I'm thinking maybe I will genuinely like it here.


On a final note, I wanted to touch on how much France has made me appreciate the price of drinks back in the States.  Now, all my life my mother has not allowed us to order anything but water in a restaurant because it's too expensive.  But.... in the States you might pay two to three dollars for a bottomless drink. In France, if you order a Coke in a restaurant, you will probably be paying around seven dollars for an almost twelve ounce bottle of Coke. No refills.  I don't think I'll ever blink twice at drink prices in the US again. (Well, except maybe at the movie theater.)  Even at the grocery store (cheapest place to get a drink in France) an approximately 17 ounce bottle of Coke (it's centiliters. 50 centiliters at the grocery store, 33cl in the restaurant bottles, and in the cans.) is about $2.50.  (Now, obviously I did find that buying a 6-pack of 50cl bottles is a little more reasonable. 4,25 euro for 6 bottles is about one US dollar per bottle.)  I know, what do I need Coke for anyways? Well I haven't had a whole lot of it, it's just that all they have around this house is water, orange juice and wine. I don't want wine, I don't like orange juice, and I'm tired of water.

Saturday.

The first night I was here, my family did have some interesting questions for me.


First, they asked about cats.  They said all their American students have told them that all Americans keep their cats locked inside because they are afraid they won't come back.  I told them that my family, personally, does keep our cats locked inside, but I don't think it has anything to do with them coming back.  Cats get hit by cars, and eaten by coyotes, and various other reasons that just make it safer and easier to keep them in the house. Besides that, I don't think my cats really have any want to leave the house for an extended period of time. They've just been conditioned that way...


The other thing they asked me about was eating with a knife.  I wasn't sure what they meant. They said none of their other American students ate with knives, or knew how to. And the example that she gave was cutting things with the side of a fork instead of using a butter knife. After watching them for a bit, I understood what she really meant.  They eat with their knife in one hand and their fork in the other, and instead of chasing food around the plate trying to get it to go on the dang fork, they just put it on with their knife.  (An alternative to this is using bread.  Then if there's sauce, you get sauce on your bread that way. But they have bread with every meal because it's France.)


As mentioned, I did go to the neighbors' to have dinner with Anne and her host family last night. It was delicious. It was a Basque dish, with peeled and steamed potatoes, and then this mixture of sliced and cooked onions, tomatoes and green bell pepper with egg mixed in. (And, of course, bread.) When it was cooking, the smell reminded me of jambalaya...  It was very good.  


After dinner their daughter Adele wanted to take Anne and me around town and show us all the bars and clubs... We ended up only going to 2 bars, and I didn't drink anything because I didn't feel like it. But I met Adele's French friend Carol, and her Irish friends Adele and Aoifa (pronounced ee-fa). They said we'd do it again next weekend but I think I'll stay home. I didn't want to be out really late and we got home at almost three in the morning.


I've officially been in France for over a week. I do miss home, but it's not too bad yet.

I know. Third post today.

Living in a house with 4 to 6 French people is going to turn out to be very interesting.  (It's normally 4, but yesterday/today there is also Julien and Stephanie.)   The family is going to a wedding today and they told me I could go next door and eat dinner with Anne and her host family.  I guess Anne is going to call me or something when it's dinner time. I don't really know. However, I did go down and have lunch with them today (I don't really know what it was. There was a salad, and then there was a creamy baked dish that tasted like it had fish and potatoes. It may take a while to get used to the way they dress their salads but the potato thing was good).  There was a lot of arguing and talking angrily. I'm not entirely sure what it was all about, something about Paul taking the car, and other stuff too but that's about the extent of my knowledge.


Now, French food is really good, but it's so limited in flavor range. I guess that's why I like American food. We don't really have our own food. We have tons of things from other cultures. Like Chinese food, and Mexican food, and Italian food, etc.  I mean, none of it is the authentic original thing but it's still so varied.  I'm seriously craving some varying flavors. Like orange chicken or enchiladas. Something with a strong distinct flavor, no?


So... If someone wants to send me a huge box of Chinese take-out and a case of Dr Pepper, I'd be cool with that. As long as it'll be fresh when it gets here. (Like, orange chicken and sweet-and-sour pork and Mongolian beef and hot-and-sour soup and chow mein and lots of rice and anything you like, too.)

Mango again.

Because someone requested pictures.

And there you have it. Mango the Maine Coon.

Chicken.

Last night I went to bed without posting. But it's okay, nothing really exciting happened yesterday.

We went to the school, for orientation, and sat around listening to them talk about boring stuff for a while. They said we won't get our schedules until the day before classes start, because French schools like to take their time with things.  After that we went and took a mini-tour of the campus, and then walked downtown to look at notable buildings and shops.  They left us at the bus office so that whoever wanted to could get a month-long bus pass, which I did.

My host mom asked me last night if I wanted to eat dinner with them and I told her I would, but then I fell asleep. I felt really bad.  They eat dinner really late here (around 9pm) and I didn't feel too well.  I was talking to Robina earlier (assistant program director) about my host family and she said that Yvon really likes to talk, and Claudie cooks really well.  I bet her chicken last night was really good.


Also, I met the daughter. Her name is actually Caroline.


Edit: I also met oldest son Julien (Julienne? I don't know.) and his girlfriend Stephanie. They came for a visit, I guess it was a complete surprise. They stayed for dinner, which made me feel even worse for missing dinner after I told them I'd have dinner with them...

Mango.

My host family has a Maine coon cat!  And another cat.  I was really hoping they'd have pets. And kids!  They have 4 kids, I can't remember the oldest boy's name, the second is Guillaume, whose room I am occupying (no, he's not here) and then the youngest two are twins and I think they're 19.  The girl's name is Cathleen (I don't know how it's spelled though; some French spelling, I'm sure) and the boy's name is Paul. I've only met Paul yet.  My host "mother" is Claudie and my host "father" is Yvon.  Oh, and the cats. Mango and Speedy.  Another thing I was really hoping they'd have:  INTERNET! I'm so glad they have wi-fi. It'd be a real pain to try to get online elsewhere. They also have a phone that can call internationally, and they said I can use it whenever I want. I don't know that I'll need to though.  I have skype, which by the way if you don't have that number please ask me and I will gladly give it to you.


My family actually does not speak a lot of English. Yvon is a Spanish teacher (I would say that is ironic but I did put on the housing form that I speak Spanish too) and I'm not sure what Claudie does but she gets off work at 8pm. They fed me bread with pâté (which I did actually like) and little mini elbow macaronis with a bolognaise sauce and... wine and sangría. Yvon wanted me to try it.


Oh, another thing that I am very glad for.  My host family's neighbors are hosting another student from the program, and she is one of the people I just spent a week in Paris with.  So I am not completely alone out here. They're literally right next door, and our host families are supposed to take us to the university for orientation the first day so tomorrow I get to walk over there and ride in with Anne and her host mother, Miriam.


We rode to Pau through the country today.  The French countryside is full of sunflower fields, cornfields, trees, cornfields, water, sunflower fields, trees and vineyards. It was a very nice drive.


Tomorrow we get to go to an orientation and then have the weekend to ourselves.  I'm exhausted. So I'm going to bed.


Oh yea, one more thing. I'm still not done uploading all my photos and I'm too tired tonight, so hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow.

Some Hotels...

So we just got to Tours for the night.  I have internet here but... That photo website is blocked on this hotel's internet and I fell asleep yesterday before I finished uploading all my pictures. I think I only got about half.  Problem is, I don't know if I'll even have internet after today... That's really frustrating.


Anyways, we toured a castle today that was very pretty and I've got pictures of that but you won't see them until tomorrow at the earliest.  We rode on the bus for most of the day. My roommate and I are going to go with a couple other girls to find a creperie and have some crepes here in Tours.  Tomorrow, 8 more hours on the bus with one stop at another castle.  Should be fun. And then around 7:30pm I get to meet my host family, I'm really anxious for that. I want to know what they're like and stuff already, and I wish I could meet them sooner rather than later.  But tomorrow is soon enough I guess. Classes start Tuesday.

I am not good at original titles.

We're leaving Paris today, and I'm not sure if I'll have internet anywhere else so I don't know how often I'll be able to post.


Also, I'm going to change my photo albums up a little so that it's a little easier to organize.  It should be easy to figure out, I just didn't want anyone to read what I said on my last post and then go and get confused.


Edit: I have moved all my photos into sub-albums within the album linked before, they will be found on the right-hand side of your screen when you are on the photo album page.

Euro ≠ Dollar

My mommy is going to be very unhappy with me.
You know how I don't really like shopping? Well... I'd never been shopping in Paris before. Our tour today ended in a major shopping district in Paris, and my roommate wanted to go wander. We went to H&M and some store called Stradivarius. And I spent like 100€. Sorry Momma. Teresa and I had a lot of fun though, and I guess it's a good thing that we were exhausted because we both wanted to shop more.  I kinda was just getting into my suitcase this morning though, and decided I didn't bring much clothing.  But now I'm all set! All I need are a few scarves and I'll look French!  (Not really...)


Tonight is our last night in Paris, which is a good thing because the hotel staff cut our air conditioner and we can't get it to come back on.  I think it's because we left it on too low or something and they didn't want us making it that cold in our rooms.  We're currently retaliating by opening every window in the hotel room.  I really can't wait to get to Pau and meet my host family, and find out if they have internet. And a washing machine. Some convenient things to have.  Also, I know nothing about them. However, before we go to Pau we're stopping in Versailles and staying the night in Tours...  Good thing we got to rest all afternoon today.


I think pretty much every meal I have had mainly consists of French bread.  Usually Teresa and I are wandering around looking for somewhere to eat and just when we're starting to think we'll pass out from hunger, we see a sign that says "BOULANGERIE" and so we go buy some bread and/or sandwiches from the bakery.  I think boulangerie (bakery) has become my new favorite word. It's quick and it's cheap. And it's delicious.


Alright, so I'm uploading all of my pictures onto photobucket albums, and I just want to kind of talk about that for a second for anyone who isn't used to that.  It's a very similar set-up to facebook pictures, each picture will have a title and a description. The way I have it set up is that the title will be where I was when I took the picture, the description will tell what the point of the picture was (unless there was no point).  And the next/previous buttons are right above the picture.  This is not the way I wanted to do my pictures but it will have to work.


Click here for pictures from the last three days.


Edit:  P.S. I put that title on the post for a reason, and then I forgot to actually talk about the reason.  All of us in the group keep accidentally saying dollars instead of euros.  "Oh yea, I bought this dress at H&M for 30 dollars."  I guess that's not really a good thing because how do you think about conversion when you're not even thinking about euros? I guess we'll have to get used to it.

French Bread

Okay. Today was pretty tiring.  We got up at 7:30 this morning, took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We were there for about 2 hours, it was really fun and really pretty. I've decided that I really like structures built for world fairs (like the Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower). From there, we walked. And then found another metro station and rode to the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, which is a huge shopping district. We didn't really have a lot of time there, we grabbed some food and went up the Arc de Triomphe and then we had to meet back up with the group.


The food that we got, though, was really good. We (we being my roommate Teresa and I) found a little sandwich shop (at my request) and had some yummy French sandwiches. We haven't really been eating a whole lot, so we probably would have thought anything was yummy. Food in France is not cheap....


After that we rode the metro over to the opera house and wandered around there. Then we rode the metro to Les Invalides (thankfully they gave us some metro tickets the first day, so we're not buying tickets every time). Les Invalides is a hospital for wounded soldiers in the middle of Paris, a place where they can live and mingle with Parisians. A big part of it has now been turned into offices or the army museum, but there's also a giant golden-domed room at the back, which houses Napoleon Bonaparte's ashes and his six coffins. After that we walked to a museum, which was full of boring scultures (like the Thinker) so my roommate and I went and took the metro back on our own because we were exhausted.


For dinner, we found a bakery where my roommate bought bread (she bought butter for it yesterday) and I bought a sandwich, and we were going to go back to a grocery store we found yesterday for some cheaper drinks, but it's Sunday and by that time it was 8:30, so they were closed. We had to go to McDonald's for drinks.  But it's really cool, because their fast-food restaurants have computers where you can place your order and then just go get it, or at this McDonald's there was a guy with a little hand-held register who came along the line and took your order, and then all you had to do was step up to the counter with your printed ticket and give them the amount you owe, and then they give you your food. It was very convenient.


Also, I just have to add this because it's important. European Coca-Cola is so much better than American Coca-Cola.  I don't usually like cola drinks but theirs actually tastes halfway decent. I was extremely happy to discover this. I hate the acidity of American Coca-Cola.


So I took a ton of pictures today (and at the request of Mr. Cory Blake, there are actually pictures with me in them) but I don't feel like uploading them tonight, and we're going more places tomorrow anyways, so they'll be easier to upload all at once.


Long post today, sorry. You don't have to read it. Just skip to this line. Oh wait, maybe I said that too late.... Oops.