but that's a good thing, right? i suppose it means that i've been out and about, having fun, not having time to write blog posts. but i'm gonna take some precious time out of my french life to get you all caught up on my adventures. :)
not a lot has happened besides school. last weekend, though, all of the international students took a trip to to mont saint michel and saint malo. we left the school at 7h30 in the morning on saturday. it was toughhh to get up that early! and it was raining! i sat next to grace on the bus and we were both knocked out for the whole ride there, which took 3 hours. i listened to a bunch of "sparks" by coldplay and a lot of songs by explosions in the sky because they're sooo relaxing. we went to saint malo first, which was this huge fortress with a whole town inside! we walked around the fortress first, took a lot of pictures, and then descended into the town. the views were awesome, and even though it wasn't warm outside, the smell of salty ocean water was invigorating. the beach was really cool. the sand there wasn't mushy though, it was packed so tightly that it felt like i was walking on solid ground. we were pretty hungry by the time we finished walking around the outskirts of the town, so when we went inside, we wanted to eat right away. we went to a restaurant that i can't remember the name of, and we got galettes. i got an egg and ham galette with mushrooms. sounds good, right? i don't know, i think the more i eat them the less i like them. i think maybe it's because of the egg. they make it sunny-side-up, which normally i don't have a problem with, but there's something about their eggs that bothers my little taste buds. like it's a stronger, more bitter taste? i'm not sure, but i just tried to eat it quickly so i could get it all down and fill up my stomach at least. we had cider while we were there, too, and it was reallllly good. after that, we walked around trying to find a quick crêperie, and when we found one, i ordered a crêpe with caramel and sugar butter. i literally felt like melting it was SO DELICIOUS. i think a crêperie in lawrence would do pretty well. :) now that's an idea for a money-maker! i'll pay for my college in crêpes! after that godly experience, we walked around some more and went into a couple stores, like this nautical store with lots of typical french-style clothes with the horizontal stripes. but it was especially cool because the region that we were in, bretagne (brittany,) was where that style originated. nifty! i didn't buy a shirt though because i already bought one in angers. but i'm going to pretend like it's from bretagne. :)
after that, we went to mont saint michel, which is a really big, old abbey. and it was beauuutiful! i liked seeing all the different rooms and high ceilings, the crosses and sculptures, and the view of the land and water below! it's so cool to think that it was built so long ago. people. are. amazing. although i don't have as much to say about the abbey as i do saint malo, it was my favorite place of the day. it was just so indescribably majestic. i bought some postcards that some of you readers should be getting pretty soon. :) surprise! watch out i got tricks up mah sleeve! on the ride back home, i put my ipod on shuffle like i usually do, but it was being so good to me! i felt like it knew exactly what i wanted to hear! haha... here is an example of a few songs it played: "all i have to give" by the backstreet boys, "pour some sugar on me" by def leppard, "in da club" by 50 cent, "times" by tenth avenue north, "better luck next time, prince charming" by alesana, "gravel" by ani difranco, "all these things i hate (revolve around me)" by bullet for my valentine, "in one ear" by cage the elephant, "how great is our god" by chris tomlin... and lots more. and i was really happy because the last song that played before the bus got back to the school was "up up and away" by kid cudi, one of my faves! when i got home, i sat with colette in the living room for awhile and talked to her, but my eyes were really struggling to stay open. so i went upstairs, skyped for a bit, then went to bed. i was wiped.
the next day, sunday, my ku group had another thing planned. we went to the musée des beaux arts (museum of beautiful arts) in angers. it was mostly for our history class because we are learning about how the romans kind of colonized gaul (aka france) back then. something like that, i'm not totally sure. history is my least favorite subject. so we looked at all the old pots and vases, the mosaics, the old keys and hair pins and jewelry, old axes and swords... it was pretty interesting i guess. i'm not really interested so much in seeing old pottery as i am in seeing artwork or old buildings. not that it isn't cool and fascinating, it's just not my cup of tea. that sunday was beautiful, though; i wore a dress with only a cardigan to keep me warm because it was only a little chilly. but the sun was shining and i loved it!
as for school, the past week has been pretty good. i'm enjoying my classes, mostly language and phonetics. next best are oral comprehension and writing. least favorite are literature and history. bleh.
p.s. i just accidentally pressed the home button on here, and i FREAKED OUT because i thought i just lost everything that i have written thus far. thank god that this website saves drafts like every 2 minutes. WHEW!! let me go change my underwear now... hahaha :)
okay, anyway... i had a meeting with my language professor to check up on how i'm doing in the class and in other classes and how i'm doing in angers in general. and my teacher told me she thought i was doing very well in her class and that i was one of her top students. yay! that gave me some reassurance. we have a test in that class next week that i'm a little nervous for, and then a test in oral comprehension that i'm extremely nervous for, and then a test in phonetics the week after that. ahhhh! school is really putting me to the test right now! ;) i know, i'm so clever.
today i am going to paris to meet up with my cousin sarah for my birthday! my bday is on sunday but we're gonna make it a birthweekend! :) i'm very, very excited to see family. i need it! but i'll update about how that went on sunday or monday.as tigger says, "ttfn! ta-ta for now!"
paris, je t'aime
25 February 2011
17 February 2011
glad i had humor to get me through this hella long day!
so i had to wake up super early this morning because i had class at 8 a.m.
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i didn't get out of class until 8 p.m.
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holy moses.
granted, i had some breaks in between all of this. but i've come to realize that thursdays are the worst days ever for me. i have oral comprehension from 8 to 9, phonetics from 9 to 10, language from 1:30 to 3:30, and then literature/culture from 6 to 8. and it was really funny because my phonetics teacher is a hoot and a holler, let me tell you. she is absolutely zany and kooky. just my kind of person! i was definitely the kid in school who liked all the bizarre teachers that no other kids liked. anyway, my phonetics teacher was showing us how to make different hard "c" sounds with different vowels following. well, for her example of pronouncing a word with "ca" in it, she decided to use the word "cacao," which is cocoa, or chocolate. but she said it realllllllly slowly, like, "ca...ca...o." and after the second "ca" the whole class just busted up laughing. why, you ask? because we thought she was done saying the word. we thought she had said, "caca," which, in french, is "poop." hahahaha. when she realized what had happened she was cracking up, too. and she tried to go back to teaching but everyone just had the giggles. it was great. and then, to make this class even better, she had messed up a word on the white board and yelled, "raté!" which in french is "failed!" and it just reminded me of how people in america say "fail" after doing something wrong. so that made me chuckle, too. :) i love her.
i used my first break of the day to come home and take a shower, eat lunch, and talk to my sister for a little bit. i used my second break to have some tea with colette and talk to ell for a little bit. and i was telling him about how i really didn't want to go to class, especially because it was literature/culture... culture of the french medieval times. and he said, "i think that sounds interesting." and i said, "a class about the medieval times?" and, being the weird guy he is, he said, "yeah, they did some crazy shit back then! like vagina spikes and stuff!" hahahaha vagina spikes?! yeah, those things that they would use to torture people with. i don't know about any of you, but when i think of medieval times, i think of knights and castles and damsels in distress. NOT torturous vagina spike mechanisms. that was one of the highlights of my day, indeed. (but honestly, i think those big spike things were meant for one's butt... either way, it sounds like one of the worst ways to be tortured and/or killed. and that's a form of jousting i never want to know about!)
and after getting out of my last class, i was super hungry, and so were all my classmates, so we all decided to go out to eat. (which is perfect for me, since i can't make my own dinner at home. bleh! okay i'm done talking about that now.) so we walked around for maybe like 45 minutes trying to decide on where to go, mostly because whiney, bratty frat boy was picky and indecisive and annoying. and i was starting to get pissy myself simply because he was in my presence. and i was extremely hungry. finally, we settled for a cambodian restaurant. i had curry chicken because i wanted to support the curry's. well... that's a lie. i'm not very adventurous with my food, and i had tried curry flavored things before and i was pretty okay with it, so that felt like a safe decision. plus, it was just calling my name. (...get it?! =] thanks for my awesome cheesy joke-telling skills, dad!) but it was pretty good. there was squash, green beans, and potatoes in the mix, and i also had a side of noodles. which was good because there are some foods that i kinda like, i just can't eat too much of them before the taste starts to get to me. curry is one of those foods, along with shrimp and fish. but by the time we were done eating, i was ready to go home. i mean i had a pretty good night, yeah. i'm pretty tired right now, and it's just exhausting having to deal with someone who is so rude and negative and annoying all damn night. i mean, i honestly can get along with practically anyone because i'm just very accepting of others' differences and personalities and behaviors..... or maybe i'm just full of myself. ;)
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i didn't get out of class until 8 p.m.
...
...
...
holy moses.
granted, i had some breaks in between all of this. but i've come to realize that thursdays are the worst days ever for me. i have oral comprehension from 8 to 9, phonetics from 9 to 10, language from 1:30 to 3:30, and then literature/culture from 6 to 8. and it was really funny because my phonetics teacher is a hoot and a holler, let me tell you. she is absolutely zany and kooky. just my kind of person! i was definitely the kid in school who liked all the bizarre teachers that no other kids liked. anyway, my phonetics teacher was showing us how to make different hard "c" sounds with different vowels following. well, for her example of pronouncing a word with "ca" in it, she decided to use the word "cacao," which is cocoa, or chocolate. but she said it realllllllly slowly, like, "ca...ca...o." and after the second "ca" the whole class just busted up laughing. why, you ask? because we thought she was done saying the word. we thought she had said, "caca," which, in french, is "poop." hahahaha. when she realized what had happened she was cracking up, too. and she tried to go back to teaching but everyone just had the giggles. it was great. and then, to make this class even better, she had messed up a word on the white board and yelled, "raté!" which in french is "failed!" and it just reminded me of how people in america say "fail" after doing something wrong. so that made me chuckle, too. :) i love her.
i used my first break of the day to come home and take a shower, eat lunch, and talk to my sister for a little bit. i used my second break to have some tea with colette and talk to ell for a little bit. and i was telling him about how i really didn't want to go to class, especially because it was literature/culture... culture of the french medieval times. and he said, "i think that sounds interesting." and i said, "a class about the medieval times?" and, being the weird guy he is, he said, "yeah, they did some crazy shit back then! like vagina spikes and stuff!" hahahaha vagina spikes?! yeah, those things that they would use to torture people with. i don't know about any of you, but when i think of medieval times, i think of knights and castles and damsels in distress. NOT torturous vagina spike mechanisms. that was one of the highlights of my day, indeed. (but honestly, i think those big spike things were meant for one's butt... either way, it sounds like one of the worst ways to be tortured and/or killed. and that's a form of jousting i never want to know about!)
and after getting out of my last class, i was super hungry, and so were all my classmates, so we all decided to go out to eat. (which is perfect for me, since i can't make my own dinner at home. bleh! okay i'm done talking about that now.) so we walked around for maybe like 45 minutes trying to decide on where to go, mostly because whiney, bratty frat boy was picky and indecisive and annoying. and i was starting to get pissy myself simply because he was in my presence. and i was extremely hungry. finally, we settled for a cambodian restaurant. i had curry chicken because i wanted to support the curry's. well... that's a lie. i'm not very adventurous with my food, and i had tried curry flavored things before and i was pretty okay with it, so that felt like a safe decision. plus, it was just calling my name. (...get it?! =] thanks for my awesome cheesy joke-telling skills, dad!) but it was pretty good. there was squash, green beans, and potatoes in the mix, and i also had a side of noodles. which was good because there are some foods that i kinda like, i just can't eat too much of them before the taste starts to get to me. curry is one of those foods, along with shrimp and fish. but by the time we were done eating, i was ready to go home. i mean i had a pretty good night, yeah. i'm pretty tired right now, and it's just exhausting having to deal with someone who is so rude and negative and annoying all damn night. i mean, i honestly can get along with practically anyone because i'm just very accepting of others' differences and personalities and behaviors..... or maybe i'm just full of myself. ;)
16 February 2011
bueller.... bueller.... bueller....
no, it's not what you're thinking. i didn't skip class. it was cancelled! for real. no class today. WHADDUP. so i slept in late, woke up, ate breakfast, and went back to my room so i could sit in bed and start a book. which is, so far, a really good, funny book. it's called extremely loud & incredibly close by jonathan safran foer. if you get the chance, you should totally buy it or check it out from a library. after reading some of that, i got dressed and got ready for the day. i went to the post office to pick up a package from ell with my valentine's day and birthday cards inside. and i was a good little girl and i only opened the valentine's day one. :) and it was quite lovely to say the least. i also got another card from my grammy and papa! :) it made me so happy because i had no idea that they were going to send me anything here in france. i love them so much. <3
when i got home, karen wanted to go out and take pictures so i agreed to go. we met up with grace at the school and ventured into the city, walking and talking, stopping to take pictures, sitting down in a cafe to get some coffee... it was a good time. but very cold! for some reason i seriously felt like my hands got frostbitten, or maybe they were just super cold and dry... i don't know, but cha-lay it huuurt! it was soon time for dinner, and it was really good. we had soup made from blended potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, and tomatoes. deliciousss. i'm gonna start making soup like that. and then we had omelettes with lardon, which is kind of like what we would call bacon back in the states. on another note: did you know if you try to say 'beer can' with a british accent it will sound like you are saying 'bacon' in a jamaican accent and vice versa? i dare you to try it. you shall be amazed at your ability to sound foreign from two different countries! aaand back to what i was saying. then, we had the regular bread, cheese, and wine. and for dessert we had chocolate cream, which kinda has the texture of flan/pudding. it is also delicious, and if you're my facebook friend and saw that i posted that i was in need of chocolate/ ice cream/ chocolate ice cream... yes, it did the trick.
and pardon my french (wow, how fitting of a phrase that is for my situation!) but... what the fuck is up with this shit: okay, so at dinner karen asked colette if it was okay if we used the kitchen on days that she doesn't feed us. sounds reasonable, right? i mean, not only do have to buy all of our lunches, but we also have to buy 4 dinners a week for ourselves. and who wants to go out to eat all the time? it's so much more expensive. so, colette's answer was that we are forbidden to use the microwave except for on sundays, or we can use it any day of the week if it's to heat up water for tea or something. what?!?! really?! forbidden to use a damn microwave?! why, is it that inconvenient for you?! i mean, seriously... i find it a little ridiculous in the first place that we can't use the stove to make actual food for ourselves instead of relying on going out to eat or microwave dinners that can really only be eaten once a week, according to these house rules. but i just find it absolutely appalling that it would be "strictly forbidden" to use the microwave any other time but on sundays. i'm sorry, am i overreacting? i don't know anyone who would answer "yes" to that question. jeebus. i really don't think me and my parents paid this much money for me to be restricted from even making my own food. RIDONCULOUS. i suppose i'll just have to drink my food. i'll cut up some meat, cheese, vegetables, and bread.. mix that all together.. then put it in a little filter to make into a tea bag, then drink it. since i can make tea whenever i want.
when i got home, karen wanted to go out and take pictures so i agreed to go. we met up with grace at the school and ventured into the city, walking and talking, stopping to take pictures, sitting down in a cafe to get some coffee... it was a good time. but very cold! for some reason i seriously felt like my hands got frostbitten, or maybe they were just super cold and dry... i don't know, but cha-lay it huuurt! it was soon time for dinner, and it was really good. we had soup made from blended potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, and tomatoes. deliciousss. i'm gonna start making soup like that. and then we had omelettes with lardon, which is kind of like what we would call bacon back in the states. on another note: did you know if you try to say 'beer can' with a british accent it will sound like you are saying 'bacon' in a jamaican accent and vice versa? i dare you to try it. you shall be amazed at your ability to sound foreign from two different countries! aaand back to what i was saying. then, we had the regular bread, cheese, and wine. and for dessert we had chocolate cream, which kinda has the texture of flan/pudding. it is also delicious, and if you're my facebook friend and saw that i posted that i was in need of chocolate/ ice cream/ chocolate ice cream... yes, it did the trick.
and pardon my french (wow, how fitting of a phrase that is for my situation!) but... what the fuck is up with this shit: okay, so at dinner karen asked colette if it was okay if we used the kitchen on days that she doesn't feed us. sounds reasonable, right? i mean, not only do have to buy all of our lunches, but we also have to buy 4 dinners a week for ourselves. and who wants to go out to eat all the time? it's so much more expensive. so, colette's answer was that we are forbidden to use the microwave except for on sundays, or we can use it any day of the week if it's to heat up water for tea or something. what?!?! really?! forbidden to use a damn microwave?! why, is it that inconvenient for you?! i mean, seriously... i find it a little ridiculous in the first place that we can't use the stove to make actual food for ourselves instead of relying on going out to eat or microwave dinners that can really only be eaten once a week, according to these house rules. but i just find it absolutely appalling that it would be "strictly forbidden" to use the microwave any other time but on sundays. i'm sorry, am i overreacting? i don't know anyone who would answer "yes" to that question. jeebus. i really don't think me and my parents paid this much money for me to be restricted from even making my own food. RIDONCULOUS. i suppose i'll just have to drink my food. i'll cut up some meat, cheese, vegetables, and bread.. mix that all together.. then put it in a little filter to make into a tea bag, then drink it. since i can make tea whenever i want.
this is me (notice the shhexxay retainers) ANGRY that i can't make my own dwam food!!!!
15 February 2011
alors on danse (so we dance)
well i had quite the lovely valentine's day here in france :) i woke up, talked to the boy for a bit and said happy valentine's day, then went to class. and i knew he had planned something for me, i just didn't now what. but when i got to class, a guy from my school who used to live in the same house as ell handed me a huge bouquet of beauuuutiful roses!! white, yellow, red, orange, and yellow with red tips! so amazing :) i know he (and the kid who helped him) went through a lot to get me these roses while i'm away and it meant so much to me. and they look so good sitting on my desk for sure!
i had some time in between classes, so i just came home and enjoyed the beautiful sun. even though it was cold outside, just to see the sun is absolutely uplifting in any situation. :) even though i couldn't have been happier at the time. i'm starting to really enjoy my time here instead of being so homesick. yes, i miss home. i miss my friends. i miss my family. i miss chipotle, zen zero, five guys, olive garden... but after saturday (aka the day me and the three other girls were in nantes and went to that chateau) i've just been in awe of where i'm at. i'm basking in the beauty of this place. part of this may just be because i ate a dank sandwich yesterday, too...the best sandwich i've had so far while in france... but! i'm happy i feel this way. and i know other people are too. (ahem, grace.. mom.. y'all just needed to chill! i knew it would happen.) anyway, i wrote a poem about how i feel now:
the trees look like godly arms
thrusted up through the foreign ground
they are reaching, stretching
pointed towards the sun
with little strands of electricity
sprawling from each finger
as if they have super powers
and i simply stand in awe
either this is truly from another place
or this is the first time
i have opened my eyes and looked around
i suppose it may be both.
moving on... colette was cute yesterday, too. for dinner, she set the table with a special tablecloth and special napkins, and we had a glass of special wine before dinner. all this because "our boyfriends couldn't be here for valentine's day." haha =] she's adorable. we had a little appetizer of cheese crackers and walnuts, and instead of soup for our first course we had salad with vinaigrette. and i think i said this before, but i'm really picky about my salad. i only really like one kind of dressing, and that's dorothy lynch...which, as far as i know, can only be found in nebraska and kansas. and the salad was a cabbage salad, not lettuce. not a huge fan of cabbage either. but... i took a little bit of it. not too much to where i couldn't eat it all, but not too little to where i looked silly taking one bite and being done. i choked down the salad like a champ. my mother would be so proud. i'm being adventurous with my food, mom! and respectful! and karen and i are getting a lot better at talking to colette, or at least trying.
oh!! and something really funny... i think this happened the day before yesterday, but oh well. so i was skyping elliot and the connection was really bad, and so he would just get random frames of my frozen facial expressions. well, in one of them, i have my eyes reallllly wide, like bug eyes, and it looks like i have an extremely deformed hand, and other than that, it's just the funniest picture you will ever see. i don't know what was going on at the time that i made that face, but it's quite awful. he snapped a picture of it once he saw it and sent it to me so i could look at my ridiculousness. and so i pulled up the picture on my computer and went downstairs to show colette, and she laughed so hard. hahahaha she loved it. i explained to her what happened and she just thought it was awesome. =] great bonding moment over a terrible picture of me. oh well, ça marche! (that works!) here it is for your sick pleasure:
i had some time in between classes, so i just came home and enjoyed the beautiful sun. even though it was cold outside, just to see the sun is absolutely uplifting in any situation. :) even though i couldn't have been happier at the time. i'm starting to really enjoy my time here instead of being so homesick. yes, i miss home. i miss my friends. i miss my family. i miss chipotle, zen zero, five guys, olive garden... but after saturday (aka the day me and the three other girls were in nantes and went to that chateau) i've just been in awe of where i'm at. i'm basking in the beauty of this place. part of this may just be because i ate a dank sandwich yesterday, too...the best sandwich i've had so far while in france... but! i'm happy i feel this way. and i know other people are too. (ahem, grace.. mom.. y'all just needed to chill! i knew it would happen.) anyway, i wrote a poem about how i feel now:
the trees look like godly arms
thrusted up through the foreign ground
they are reaching, stretching
pointed towards the sun
with little strands of electricity
sprawling from each finger
as if they have super powers
and i simply stand in awe
either this is truly from another place
or this is the first time
i have opened my eyes and looked around
i suppose it may be both.
moving on... colette was cute yesterday, too. for dinner, she set the table with a special tablecloth and special napkins, and we had a glass of special wine before dinner. all this because "our boyfriends couldn't be here for valentine's day." haha =] she's adorable. we had a little appetizer of cheese crackers and walnuts, and instead of soup for our first course we had salad with vinaigrette. and i think i said this before, but i'm really picky about my salad. i only really like one kind of dressing, and that's dorothy lynch...which, as far as i know, can only be found in nebraska and kansas. and the salad was a cabbage salad, not lettuce. not a huge fan of cabbage either. but... i took a little bit of it. not too much to where i couldn't eat it all, but not too little to where i looked silly taking one bite and being done. i choked down the salad like a champ. my mother would be so proud. i'm being adventurous with my food, mom! and respectful! and karen and i are getting a lot better at talking to colette, or at least trying.
oh!! and something really funny... i think this happened the day before yesterday, but oh well. so i was skyping elliot and the connection was really bad, and so he would just get random frames of my frozen facial expressions. well, in one of them, i have my eyes reallllly wide, like bug eyes, and it looks like i have an extremely deformed hand, and other than that, it's just the funniest picture you will ever see. i don't know what was going on at the time that i made that face, but it's quite awful. he snapped a picture of it once he saw it and sent it to me so i could look at my ridiculousness. and so i pulled up the picture on my computer and went downstairs to show colette, and she laughed so hard. hahahaha she loved it. i explained to her what happened and she just thought it was awesome. =] great bonding moment over a terrible picture of me. oh well, ça marche! (that works!) here it is for your sick pleasure:
hahahahahahahahahahaha holy moses...
but... i'm going to be the best girlfriend ever and show you all a pic of my boyfriend trying to imitate my beautiful picture:
hahahahahahahahahaha i think they're pretty similar...
anyway... i'll write about today, too since it's almost over for me and i need to get on track with my posts. so today was lovely because i got to sleep in since i don't have a class until 2:30 =] jealousss? it was raining like crazy though, and i wasn't looking forward to walking in the pouring rain. but it finally cleared up before i had to go to class. yay! also, I GOT MAIL TODAY! i lovvve getting mail, even at home in the states, because it makes me feel important! but the mail i got was a birthday card from my dad... and (sorry dad!) i opened it because i was just so excited! and it was super cute. thank you daddy! and i also got mail from ell, but it was at the post office and i could only go get it after four o' clock, and i had class from 2:30 to 6. so i gotta go fetch it tomorrow. but i'm still really excited to get it!
i also just had a couple things i wanted to discuss:
1) i was talking about this with mah fraands... i think it's awesome that girls here aren't afraid to eat in public. not that girls in the u.s. won't go get food from a drive thru or go on a dinner date with someone, but girls here will just walk down the street eating this huge, long sandwich like it's nothing. and i love it. i will gladly stuff my mouth in public from now on.
2) i know i've talked about this a lot, but i just really love my classes and teachers. why can't teachers be this enthusiastic and awesome back home?! i mean, i suppose a lot of them are, but i think they allll should be. if you're not excited about what you're talking about (that sounded redundant...) and if you don't try to connect with your audience, your audience won't get excited about the information and they won't really want to pay attention. just a thought. oh, and uh, teachers should get paid more. but that's a different story.
3) i forgot what else i wanted to say. if i remember i will write it down and save it for tomorrow. :)
i hope this post is pretty entertaining. i mean... a poem, a picture, what more could you ask for?!
happy late valentine's day everyone! and remember, even if you don't have someone to celebrate with, YOU ARE LOVED!! <3
13 February 2011
it's a great day to be alive :)
alright... i'm gonna start this off by saying i'm really sorry that i have skipped like four days of blog-writing! i know you guys (my friends and family) like to stay updated on what's goin on in my french life.
secondly, i'd like to thank some people for making the past four days quite lovely:
1) r. kelly - thank you, because i was walking home from school and "i'm a flirt" came on my itunes shuffle and just put me in a good mood. it made me think of my sister stephanie because she loves r. kelly, and it also just made me think of his ridiculous "trapped in the closet" stuff. what a lovely, lovely man.
2) old lady in her late 60s/early 70s - thank you old lady for brightening up my day by wearing black leather pants. it's great to know that you're keeping that young spirit alive. now go work it, girl!
3) my new friend kayla - i met kayla briefly, like, on the first day of school. but on friday i was able to have many-a-conversation with her and we had some great bonding time! kayla helped grace and karen to keep me sane while enduring a crazy friday night. thank. you. kayla. :)
so, my first week of school went pretty well. since it was the first week, we didn't really do very much. i had a few homework assignments here and there, but nothing for a grade. the grading starts this week! ahh! it's a little scary because i am absolutely terrible at oral comprehension, which is covered (obviously) in my oral comprehension class, but also in my general language class! i'm sure i will improve as the semester goes on. but my teachers are so awesome! they are all really enthusiastic and funny and i love it. i'm not liking that i've got 8 a.m. classes, though! boo.
so, friday night there was a club in nantes where bow wow was playing, so we all thought it would be awesome to go. nantes is only a 30 minute train ride away, and we would only be there for friday night and part of yesterday, so i thought why not. well, grace and i almost missed our train... but we hopped on at the last second and made it. it may not have even been our train as far as i know, but it was the only one there leaving at the time ours was scheduled, even though it didn't have the same train number. so when we got to nantes, two other kids in the angers program had already booked a hotel room for the night, and we were trying to see if we could just stay with them and crash on their floor, but hotel rooms in europe are definitely not like american hotels. they are tiny. so we had to get our own hotel room, which, split between the four of us ('cause karen and kayla came, too) was only 20 euros. so it wasn't too bad. grace and i had to sneak them in our room though because there are only supposed to be two people to a room and you have to pay 20 more euros for each additional person. and we thought that was just ridonkulous so we opted for sneaking them in. we think that the lady at the desk knew, but just didn't care. and i can totally respect that. so we met up with skye and zach and we all went out to eat at this chinese restaurant. and i was so excited because everything was like 6-8 euros... but then they brought out our food and they were tiiiiiny dishes. i just thought, this isn't enough to even feed an infant! but i didn't want to order anything else because it took them like 30 minutes or more to bring out our food, and i didn't want to wait that long again.
when we were done eating, we tried to figure out where to go for the night because the whole bow wow thing was way too far away. and i definitely didn't want to take a taxi anywhere because it gets so expensive, especially since we had to take one from the train station to our hotel and then from the hotel to the restaurant. and i knew we would have to take one later to get home. so i was like, eff that. i'm staying here. everybody wanted to dance though, and we all wanted to go different places and blah blah blah. it was a mess. there was a lot of arguing and tension and the night just went down really, really quickly. and i was soon wishing i had never gone on that trip. (there are many other events that happened and reasons for me having such a god-awful night, but it's too intricate to explain it all and i don't want to re-hash it.) finally, we split up into our two different groups of people who wanted to do the same things and started our night. me, grace, karen, and kayla went to a bar called "the elephant club" and it was pretty fun. that was the beginning of turning our night around. then, skye and zach came back to the bar where we were at and we all figured out something close that we could all do. and after searching and asking a million strangers for directions, we finally found a discothèque where we could dance. at first, we were the only ones there. which was fine, i was still having fun. and then after like 2 in the morning it started to get busy. these europeans are crazy!! who starts their night at 2 in the morning?! anyway, grace and i talked to the bartender upstairs for a long time because he had traveled to kansas city a few times and we thought that was cool. we talked about kansas city things, about the jayhawks, barbeque, and whatnot. he was really nice. finally it was time to end our night, so we caught a cab and went home. we slept three people to the bed and karen slept on the ottoman at the end of the bed. hahah!
the next day, we got up and headed out to explore nantes in the daytime. we went and got something to eat then wandered around and took lots and lots of pictures. we went to this chateau where the dukes of brittany (a region of france) used to live. it was so awesome! after that, we went to the train station to get karen and kayla's tickets to go back home. then we wandered some more and found this beauuuutiful garden. it was huge! and all of the different kinds of plants were labeled. there were also a lot of ducks, pigeons, doves, and other birds there. it was breathtaking. we walked around there for a long time just enjoying nature and taking pictures. after that, we walked around trying to find a crêperie but by the time we got to one that we wanted to go in, it was closed. :( because they open and close at really weird times. like, a lot of crêperies open in the morning, then close in the early afternoon, then open again at 7 p.m. so we wandered more, found this cool secondhand store, then finally settled for a pâtisserie. i got a pineapple tart and some orange juice and it was so good. we just sat there and talked for maybe an hour and a half or two hours. and we still had nearly 3 hours to kill before our train left for angers. but we were all super super tired, so we went to the train station to see if we could get our tickets changed to an earlier train. and we did. and it felt so good to be home. :)
i finally got to skype my dad!! i was so happy to see him and hear his voice! <3 and i also got to talk to rhonda and i was so happy to see her, too. i don't know what i would do without skype. seeing people's faces and hearing their voices is just so much more comforting than anything else. and i told my dad about how my roommate, karen, is from alaska and how she told me she has seen killer whales before, and he goes, "really?! that's killer!!" hahaha. my dad is always good for cheesy jokes. i love them. another cheesy joke: while the girls and i were waiting at the train station for our train, we were talking about how we don't really like the wedge-style shoes anymore. and grace goes, "yeah, that's because french people like to live their fashion lives on the edge." and kayla goes, "or on the wedge." hahaha! so great. yesterday was definitely one of the best days i've had here. :) today, i'm probably just going to be hanging out, doing nothing at home since i've got school at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. so i might not write a blog post for today. but don't worry, there will definitely be one for tomorrow because tomorrow is valentine's day! and my amazing boyfriend planned something for me all the way from the united states. <3
okay, you've been on my blog page long enough, now go away! i'll give you a video to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hrUGFhsXo&feature=fvst
à demain!
secondly, i'd like to thank some people for making the past four days quite lovely:
1) r. kelly - thank you, because i was walking home from school and "i'm a flirt" came on my itunes shuffle and just put me in a good mood. it made me think of my sister stephanie because she loves r. kelly, and it also just made me think of his ridiculous "trapped in the closet" stuff. what a lovely, lovely man.
2) old lady in her late 60s/early 70s - thank you old lady for brightening up my day by wearing black leather pants. it's great to know that you're keeping that young spirit alive. now go work it, girl!
3) my new friend kayla - i met kayla briefly, like, on the first day of school. but on friday i was able to have many-a-conversation with her and we had some great bonding time! kayla helped grace and karen to keep me sane while enduring a crazy friday night. thank. you. kayla. :)
so, my first week of school went pretty well. since it was the first week, we didn't really do very much. i had a few homework assignments here and there, but nothing for a grade. the grading starts this week! ahh! it's a little scary because i am absolutely terrible at oral comprehension, which is covered (obviously) in my oral comprehension class, but also in my general language class! i'm sure i will improve as the semester goes on. but my teachers are so awesome! they are all really enthusiastic and funny and i love it. i'm not liking that i've got 8 a.m. classes, though! boo.
so, friday night there was a club in nantes where bow wow was playing, so we all thought it would be awesome to go. nantes is only a 30 minute train ride away, and we would only be there for friday night and part of yesterday, so i thought why not. well, grace and i almost missed our train... but we hopped on at the last second and made it. it may not have even been our train as far as i know, but it was the only one there leaving at the time ours was scheduled, even though it didn't have the same train number. so when we got to nantes, two other kids in the angers program had already booked a hotel room for the night, and we were trying to see if we could just stay with them and crash on their floor, but hotel rooms in europe are definitely not like american hotels. they are tiny. so we had to get our own hotel room, which, split between the four of us ('cause karen and kayla came, too) was only 20 euros. so it wasn't too bad. grace and i had to sneak them in our room though because there are only supposed to be two people to a room and you have to pay 20 more euros for each additional person. and we thought that was just ridonkulous so we opted for sneaking them in. we think that the lady at the desk knew, but just didn't care. and i can totally respect that. so we met up with skye and zach and we all went out to eat at this chinese restaurant. and i was so excited because everything was like 6-8 euros... but then they brought out our food and they were tiiiiiny dishes. i just thought, this isn't enough to even feed an infant! but i didn't want to order anything else because it took them like 30 minutes or more to bring out our food, and i didn't want to wait that long again.
when we were done eating, we tried to figure out where to go for the night because the whole bow wow thing was way too far away. and i definitely didn't want to take a taxi anywhere because it gets so expensive, especially since we had to take one from the train station to our hotel and then from the hotel to the restaurant. and i knew we would have to take one later to get home. so i was like, eff that. i'm staying here. everybody wanted to dance though, and we all wanted to go different places and blah blah blah. it was a mess. there was a lot of arguing and tension and the night just went down really, really quickly. and i was soon wishing i had never gone on that trip. (there are many other events that happened and reasons for me having such a god-awful night, but it's too intricate to explain it all and i don't want to re-hash it.) finally, we split up into our two different groups of people who wanted to do the same things and started our night. me, grace, karen, and kayla went to a bar called "the elephant club" and it was pretty fun. that was the beginning of turning our night around. then, skye and zach came back to the bar where we were at and we all figured out something close that we could all do. and after searching and asking a million strangers for directions, we finally found a discothèque where we could dance. at first, we were the only ones there. which was fine, i was still having fun. and then after like 2 in the morning it started to get busy. these europeans are crazy!! who starts their night at 2 in the morning?! anyway, grace and i talked to the bartender upstairs for a long time because he had traveled to kansas city a few times and we thought that was cool. we talked about kansas city things, about the jayhawks, barbeque, and whatnot. he was really nice. finally it was time to end our night, so we caught a cab and went home. we slept three people to the bed and karen slept on the ottoman at the end of the bed. hahah!
the next day, we got up and headed out to explore nantes in the daytime. we went and got something to eat then wandered around and took lots and lots of pictures. we went to this chateau where the dukes of brittany (a region of france) used to live. it was so awesome! after that, we went to the train station to get karen and kayla's tickets to go back home. then we wandered some more and found this beauuuutiful garden. it was huge! and all of the different kinds of plants were labeled. there were also a lot of ducks, pigeons, doves, and other birds there. it was breathtaking. we walked around there for a long time just enjoying nature and taking pictures. after that, we walked around trying to find a crêperie but by the time we got to one that we wanted to go in, it was closed. :( because they open and close at really weird times. like, a lot of crêperies open in the morning, then close in the early afternoon, then open again at 7 p.m. so we wandered more, found this cool secondhand store, then finally settled for a pâtisserie. i got a pineapple tart and some orange juice and it was so good. we just sat there and talked for maybe an hour and a half or two hours. and we still had nearly 3 hours to kill before our train left for angers. but we were all super super tired, so we went to the train station to see if we could get our tickets changed to an earlier train. and we did. and it felt so good to be home. :)
i finally got to skype my dad!! i was so happy to see him and hear his voice! <3 and i also got to talk to rhonda and i was so happy to see her, too. i don't know what i would do without skype. seeing people's faces and hearing their voices is just so much more comforting than anything else. and i told my dad about how my roommate, karen, is from alaska and how she told me she has seen killer whales before, and he goes, "really?! that's killer!!" hahaha. my dad is always good for cheesy jokes. i love them. another cheesy joke: while the girls and i were waiting at the train station for our train, we were talking about how we don't really like the wedge-style shoes anymore. and grace goes, "yeah, that's because french people like to live their fashion lives on the edge." and kayla goes, "or on the wedge." hahaha! so great. yesterday was definitely one of the best days i've had here. :) today, i'm probably just going to be hanging out, doing nothing at home since i've got school at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. so i might not write a blog post for today. but don't worry, there will definitely be one for tomorrow because tomorrow is valentine's day! and my amazing boyfriend planned something for me all the way from the united states. <3
okay, you've been on my blog page long enough, now go away! i'll give you a video to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hrUGFhsXo&feature=fvst
à demain!
07 February 2011
back to school, back to school, to prove to dad i'm not a fool
billy madison said it. and billy madison said it best. back to school bias! we started class today... it alllll began at 9h30 (that's how they write it in france so that's how i'm writing it from now on. get some!) and first thing, i found out what level into which i was placed. (i know, way to avoid ending that sentence with a preposition even though it sounds more awkward...) and i got into 322! which means there are 11 levels below me and four levels above me, and then above that are the superior levels, which are for people who are realllll freakin good at french. like my lovely friend grace. :) yep! grace, that little smarty pants. i'm so stinkin proud of her! and i'm so stinkin happy that she's here in france, experiencing something huge, something different, and probably something she's wanted to do for a long time! woooo for awesome adventures and experiences!
when everyone got a look at their placement, we all gathered in the auditorium for an hour-long assembly telling us which professors were for which levels and so on. then we were released to go to our classes. so, i started off my day with my "langue" class, or language class. and i gotta say... i. love. my. teacher. she is so pretty, energetic, funny, animated, smart, and so so nice. i totally lucked out! i'm very excited to have her for a teacher and i think that class is perfect for me considering how challenging it will be, but definitely doable. wow, i really didn't think that doable was a word. i thought the spell check was gonna put that red squiggly line under it for sure, but it didn't! huh. learn something new errday i guess! (errday is not a real word. dangit. we're gonna have to work on that.) but after that class (and after some awesome mediterranean pizza for lunch,) we were just allowed to sit in on the other classes that were taking place to see if we liked or were interested in them enough to enroll in them by the end of the week. so i sat in on a class where you just translate all the time, like english articles to french. all the time. i don't think i could do that, so i was like, ehh probably not. i'll just draw a volcano spitting our a flower into space with a bowling ball planet and bowling pin stars..... c'était une bonne idée. (it was a good idea) because it turned out to be AHHSOME! i wish you could hear my voice when i thought of how that would sound in my head...
but the next class to sit in on was canceled because the teacher was gone. way to make a good impression, prof! just kidding, i'm sure it was for something important. :) so i just chilled at the school for about an hour because i had to go back to my langue class for two hours. we did that whole "get to know each other" game in french. and when i was asked to tell about myself i pretty much just bragged the whole time. i didn't realize i was doing it, but now that i look back on it, i probably sounded snotty. but i mean, i was asked to talk about myself so... i talked about how i was in a relationship since yesterday (haha, after i said that my awesome teacher goes, "okay class, so madeline is NOT single, okay, she's not available!) and i talked about how i was turning 20 on the 27th of february and i also talked about how KU is numbah 2 and we're awesome at basketball. <3 just reppin, that's all. so that class finished at like 6 at night. whew! such a long day! and then i had to have a little meeting with my professor from KU who traveled here with us. so i did that, then got home at 7, just in time for dinner. and it was so good. we had french onion soup, then this amazing quiche, then cheese, bread, and wine, and finally we had this praline tasting tiramasu. <3 soooo delicious. i'm salivating right now just thinking about it. we had a really good time at dinner, too. we talked and laughed a lot more today than any other day. i think it's getting easier to talk to each other and ask questions about each other and hold a conversation and such. it's quite lovely. and colette is just a lovely old lady anyway!
other than that, not much going on right now. i'm sitting in bed yawning rivers. i hate that yawning makes you cry sometimes......why is that?!! (cliff hanger, oooooh!)
when everyone got a look at their placement, we all gathered in the auditorium for an hour-long assembly telling us which professors were for which levels and so on. then we were released to go to our classes. so, i started off my day with my "langue" class, or language class. and i gotta say... i. love. my. teacher. she is so pretty, energetic, funny, animated, smart, and so so nice. i totally lucked out! i'm very excited to have her for a teacher and i think that class is perfect for me considering how challenging it will be, but definitely doable. wow, i really didn't think that doable was a word. i thought the spell check was gonna put that red squiggly line under it for sure, but it didn't! huh. learn something new errday i guess! (errday is not a real word. dangit. we're gonna have to work on that.) but after that class (and after some awesome mediterranean pizza for lunch,) we were just allowed to sit in on the other classes that were taking place to see if we liked or were interested in them enough to enroll in them by the end of the week. so i sat in on a class where you just translate all the time, like english articles to french. all the time. i don't think i could do that, so i was like, ehh probably not. i'll just draw a volcano spitting our a flower into space with a bowling ball planet and bowling pin stars..... c'était une bonne idée. (it was a good idea) because it turned out to be AHHSOME! i wish you could hear my voice when i thought of how that would sound in my head...
but the next class to sit in on was canceled because the teacher was gone. way to make a good impression, prof! just kidding, i'm sure it was for something important. :) so i just chilled at the school for about an hour because i had to go back to my langue class for two hours. we did that whole "get to know each other" game in french. and when i was asked to tell about myself i pretty much just bragged the whole time. i didn't realize i was doing it, but now that i look back on it, i probably sounded snotty. but i mean, i was asked to talk about myself so... i talked about how i was in a relationship since yesterday (haha, after i said that my awesome teacher goes, "okay class, so madeline is NOT single, okay, she's not available!) and i talked about how i was turning 20 on the 27th of february and i also talked about how KU is numbah 2 and we're awesome at basketball. <3 just reppin, that's all. so that class finished at like 6 at night. whew! such a long day! and then i had to have a little meeting with my professor from KU who traveled here with us. so i did that, then got home at 7, just in time for dinner. and it was so good. we had french onion soup, then this amazing quiche, then cheese, bread, and wine, and finally we had this praline tasting tiramasu. <3 soooo delicious. i'm salivating right now just thinking about it. we had a really good time at dinner, too. we talked and laughed a lot more today than any other day. i think it's getting easier to talk to each other and ask questions about each other and hold a conversation and such. it's quite lovely. and colette is just a lovely old lady anyway!
other than that, not much going on right now. i'm sitting in bed yawning rivers. i hate that yawning makes you cry sometimes......why is that?!! (cliff hanger, oooooh!)
06 February 2011
i keep on duckin, keep on duckin, but nothing helps, i can't stop missin you
soooo today i literally did nothing up until like 8 in the evening when i walked to the grocery store to get food for dinner tomorrow night because colette told me that most stores are closed on sundays, so if i needed to get things to eat i needed to do it today. and it took me forever to find what i needed/wanted, and it was also hard because i didn't know if colette was going to let us use her fridge or not... so i just got some of those entrée things and some cans of green beans and peas and called it good. i tried to get some apples and bananas, but when the lady was scanning my stuff she held up the apples and said some gibberish, and i was like...uhh...i don't understand. and she finally got the point across that in the produce section, you're supposed to weigh out the things and tell the cashier how much they weigh because they don't have scales at their registers. so i was just like, never mind, it's okay. and went on my way. i didn't really do anything when i got home either, just hung out. i got extreeeeemely homesick that night, too. it was the reason for the teardrops on my guitar. so i skyped my seester kristian and my niece brooklyn for a bit. then went to bed and woke back up at 6 in the morning to see them again because it would be 11 their time, and elliot and josh would be back from doing manly things together. it was some good family bonding fa sho! we talked about how my niece's hair cut looks like the old cartoon character he-man's hair. look. it. up. hahahaha.
so, i'm combining that day with yesterday. cuz the past two days (saturday and sunday) have been so awesomely boring. or i guess relaxing is a better word. i've just been hanging out in my room, skyping family and friends. today was the first sunny day in angers since i've been here, and it put me in SUCH a good mood! it's like that first week of spring, because when that happens i feel damn near like mary poppins, i just wanna sing and dance and play with the animals and jump off something with an umbrella in my hand... i. love. spring. but... enough about that. it isn't spring, and now i'm just upset because i got myself all revved up. so. i showered and shaved my legs today (thank god/the makers of venus) i mean i tried to be as french-esque as possible, you shoulda seen my armpits, too... just kidding. the french shave, too, people! apparently that myth came from times of war when the french didn't bring razors with them to war, so they got all hairy, and ever since people think that all french are hairy. idk. just something i heard from a bird. but anyway, i got dressed, did my hair, took some vanity pics, did my makeup, cleaned my room, and then skyped my sister stephanie, my mom, and my stepdad in buffalo, new york. :) sooo good to see them! i let my mom meet colette and had to translate for the both of them, so that was actually kinda cool. it made me feel like a superhero, breaking the walls of language barriers! AND i got to see my little chihuahua, princess, and our other chihuahua, tucker! they weren't really down for getting excited to hear my voice or see my face :/ but whatever. i was just in such a happy mood today. maybe because the sun was shining. maybe because i got some good sleep. maybe because i gots mahself a boyfrannn! <3 haha.. most people have been saying, "well, that's no surprise. we all knew that would happen." but yes, elliot and i are official, and it is grand. at first (because he had asked me before, but i turned him down) i thought that it would be harder to be in a relationship and to be far away than to not be in a relationship and be far away... but honestly, he and i were basically a couple anyway. so it just made sense. and i'm completely happy with what we got goin on. :) SO YOU CAN RUN AN' TELL THAT, HOMEBOY!
haha it's like, 3 in the morning here. i'm tired. and loopy. but i had to get up and pee/get a drink of water. seems counterproductive, huh? oh well. i do what my body asks of me. so, i'm gonna go back to bed now. i've got school in da mo'nin! speaking of da mo'nin... watch this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnzw_i4YmKk haha it's pretty epic. bon nuit, mes amis!
so, i'm combining that day with yesterday. cuz the past two days (saturday and sunday) have been so awesomely boring. or i guess relaxing is a better word. i've just been hanging out in my room, skyping family and friends. today was the first sunny day in angers since i've been here, and it put me in SUCH a good mood! it's like that first week of spring, because when that happens i feel damn near like mary poppins, i just wanna sing and dance and play with the animals and jump off something with an umbrella in my hand... i. love. spring. but... enough about that. it isn't spring, and now i'm just upset because i got myself all revved up. so. i showered and shaved my legs today (thank god/the makers of venus) i mean i tried to be as french-esque as possible, you shoulda seen my armpits, too... just kidding. the french shave, too, people! apparently that myth came from times of war when the french didn't bring razors with them to war, so they got all hairy, and ever since people think that all french are hairy. idk. just something i heard from a bird. but anyway, i got dressed, did my hair, took some vanity pics, did my makeup, cleaned my room, and then skyped my sister stephanie, my mom, and my stepdad in buffalo, new york. :) sooo good to see them! i let my mom meet colette and had to translate for the both of them, so that was actually kinda cool. it made me feel like a superhero, breaking the walls of language barriers! AND i got to see my little chihuahua, princess, and our other chihuahua, tucker! they weren't really down for getting excited to hear my voice or see my face :/ but whatever. i was just in such a happy mood today. maybe because the sun was shining. maybe because i got some good sleep. maybe because i gots mahself a boyfrannn! <3 haha.. most people have been saying, "well, that's no surprise. we all knew that would happen." but yes, elliot and i are official, and it is grand. at first (because he had asked me before, but i turned him down) i thought that it would be harder to be in a relationship and to be far away than to not be in a relationship and be far away... but honestly, he and i were basically a couple anyway. so it just made sense. and i'm completely happy with what we got goin on. :) SO YOU CAN RUN AN' TELL THAT, HOMEBOY!
haha it's like, 3 in the morning here. i'm tired. and loopy. but i had to get up and pee/get a drink of water. seems counterproductive, huh? oh well. i do what my body asks of me. so, i'm gonna go back to bed now. i've got school in da mo'nin! speaking of da mo'nin... watch this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnzw_i4YmKk haha it's pretty epic. bon nuit, mes amis!
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