qu'est-ce que c'est?

yes, that is a real french phrase. i know it looks like i wrote the same thing twice, but it actually means "what is that?" and i say this because today i took my placement tests for the CIDEF, or the international student program at my school. and they were so hard! the listening is definitely the hardest because they have a cd playing with the exercise on it, and each exercise is of someone talking and you basically have to pick out things in their dialogue and try to match it to your answer options. doesn't seem to tough. but not only are these people on the cd talking a hundred words per second, but there is also some pretty distinctive music playing in the background. i guess they want it to be as realistic to a conversation in everyday life as possible. but, honestly, i don't know how many people are followed around by an orchestra at all times, or why on earth they would play their music louder as you began to speak. beats me! thanks a lot, dudes, you could have just not tested me on that at all!

after testing i walked with a group to the university restaurant. my american taste buds kicked in and i decided to get a hunk of delicious pizza. mmmm. i ate some strawberries in this sugar purée, then tried my yogurt.... whoa!!!! since when was eating unsweetened yogurt tasty?! it for real tasted like rotten milk that had been farted on. i know how odd that sounds, and i'm sorry if you're completely disgusted, but that's seriously what it was like. so i took that little bowl of my strawberry sugar purée and washed the nastiness out of my mouth with something a bit less nasty. when we got back to the university from the restaurant, two of the program assistants took the whole group on a tour of our lovely city. it was two hours long on foot, but i saw so many beautiful sights! a huge castle, an amazing gothic cathedral, aand (ladies you'll love this) so many sales at so many stores. i guess this is the big season for sales in angers! lucky me. :)

after the tour i walked back home and found that nobody else was there, so i relaxed in my room for awhile, began to write some letters and make some lists, then i heard colette come home. "ça va?" she said (which is basically asking me how it's going,) and i said, "oui, ça va" (yes, it's going.) soon after, karen came home and then colette, karen, and i had tea with sue, who is a director for the program, and annie, who is colette's exchange student from last semester. and here's something awesome: annie gave me her french phone for free! it was so awesome of her! so, now i have a phone that i can text my french friends on. oh la la! i'm movin on up in that technology world here in france! after sue and annie left, it was time for dinner. colette made soup and crepes. first, i ate the soup. then, i ate a crepe with ham and cheese on it, then another with nutella, and another with butter and sugar. holy crepe! but, it was really cool because colette had karen and i try our hand at flipping the crepes in the air and catching them back in the pan. i, of course, was a pro. (or maybe it was the 2 euros she put in my hand for good luck...) it was a fun little time in the kitchen with colette.

after that, not much went on. i took a shower, squeegied (sp?) the shower door -- yep, it's a rule at the colette residence! -- and got on skype with mah man. which was a lovely, lovely night of lots of smiles and laughs. my fave! and i finally talked to my mom through skype!! <3 yay! that made me really happy, and we had some good conversation, but i guess we usually do. that's about the extent of my day! i'm gonna hit the sheets for now.

...i really wish i didn't have to "oui oui" right now...