School.

Today was my second day of school and boy was it long. I had 3 classes today; each class is 2 hours. At 9 we have grammar with the director. Afterwards we have history with M. Boura. I think he is a nice man, but he is not very good with teaching us. I know that I cannot understand many things that people say to me, but I could not even hear separate words when he talked. Hm, I'm not going to flip out though, because I was very tired and the other students didn't understand. I could not stay awake for the life of me and the class felt like eternity. It made Journalism 101 look good (and that was a boring class).

We have a 2 hour break after that class. We ate in the cafeteria, but all I had was noodles and bread. Let's just say I've been getting more carbs than I need. Also, I visited with Jenny, the grad student on this trip to talk about my journal. She said I was doing a good job.

By 3:30 I was ready to crash, but I knew I had another class. This one was a little more interesting. It is literature with M. Boury. He was nice and explained things well and he talked nice and slow. I did not understand the symbolism, but hell, I don't understand that stuff in English! As an added bonus, he gave us wine after class. We like him.

I was so happy to leave school. When I came home I heard Thomas playing the xylophone so I asked him to show me some stuff. All the children are great at playing their instruments. Last night, when I heard Marie play her violin, I thought it was a CD. No joke. 

I hope to finally go out tonight. No school tomorrow. Gotta love the French. À demain!

AVIGNON!

Sorry I have not blogged in awhile! I have a very bad cold, and I have been sleeping in my spare time. Perhaps this week I can tell you about my visit to a French doctor if I go.

So I arrived in Avignon on Friday. It was nice to see everyone once again. We stayed at a cute hotel and at dinner together. We drink so much wine here! It is crazy!

On Saturday, the group took a walking tour of Avignon after breakfast. Though it rained, the town is still so gorgeous. We also visited an art museum with a painting by Edgar Degas (one of my favorites!).

At 5 o'clock, we began what felt like a slave trade. The host parents would enter to pick up their student(s) and off we went. I knew what Isabelle looked like so when she entered, my stomach dropped. She had two girls with her: Pauline (her daughter) and Emma (the daughter of her friend). You could tell she had done this before. We went to her mini van and we talked inside because it was raining. She took us for a tour of the city really quick to refresh our memories.

When we arrived at her house my jaw dropped. The house is beautiful and inside is even better. As I thought early on, Isabelle was an interior architect (I'm pretty sure) and the house is so pretty. My room is very cute. Rachel and I share a bathroom, but I have a sink in my room. There are two other students living here. Jonathan is Suisse and Natsu? (a girl) is japanese. They are both very friendly.

Isabelle is very organized. She explained everything so well. She has a very good system going. She studied in England and knows what it is like to study abroad. Also, she has 4 kids: Marie (13), Hugo (11?), Thomas (10?), et Pauline (3). She likes the French, but she does not like all of the polite customs. She is a great cook and would like us to cook with her and learn. It is nice because the food she cooks is kid friendly, and therefore, Shawna friendly. I eat everything she makes...and I love it. Except for yesterday (Sunday) when all I ate was bread and chocolate all day (for dinner we had crepes and hot chocolate and chocolate cake-I felt nauseous, esp being sick). We have a breakfast basket and our own kitchen (for the students). In fact, we have our own floor in the whole house. The ground floor is where they live. I have not seen it. I probably will not see it. The main floor is where we eat and the kids play their many instruments VERY well (I went to Hugo and Thomas's concert and I loved it!) And the third floor is for the students. We all have our own rooms (and two bathrooms and the kitchen and another random room for Marie so that she can be with the "big" kids).

I think Rachel and I are very lucky to live with such a liberal host mom. The rules are simple and lenient. No curfew. Though the lock situation is crazy. We all have a flower that represents us by the door (it is little and made of wood). I am the yellow flower. If you leave, you put the flower on a hook on the door saying that you are not in the house. If you come back, you put the flower on the hook on the wall saying that you are in the house. If you forget to put your flower on the hook on the door when you leave, you could potentially be locked out of the house at night because there are shutters on the front door that close at night and we don't have a key to those shutters. And there is also a complicated gate. Perhaps I'll just never leave at night.

O I almost forgot. The university is on strike. It has been for 2 months. But don't you fret! The international students have school! C'est bien. Now getting into the school, good luck. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow when I have to do it by myself. We had school today, but it was only grammar with the director, Christophe and he knows that we are tired, so he didn't keep us long. Plus we just had an aperatif with our families (wine and appetizers) so it kinda put us to sleep. Luckily I didn't have the other class. It is long and hard. 20 hours is enough for me. 

Yesterday was nice because I got to sleep all day and rest up for the week. I am hoping my cold leaves soon!

I don't know what else to say. I'm doin' pretty good on money for all the things I have bought. Oh, I bought my first pack of beer today. I know, I'm so cool. I bought a bunch of other things to. I accidentally bought this syrup for cocktails instead of juice. I'm stupid. I love buying water because it is so cheap. Though the water is drinkable.

Oh I took a shower. You can't leave the water on so showers aren't really enjoyable. Especially when you have a cold and want to get the mucus outta your head. You can't really do that. And it's cold when the water is off. C'est dommage. I don't shower much. Maybe once every two days.

And did I tell you that people dress normal here? I am so pissed off. I could have brought so many other clothes!!!

Well, j'ai beaucoup de devoirs ce soir (I have  a lot of homework tonight). Au revoir mes amis=)

Day 4: Avignon

I did not write about yesterday, and so many things happened! We woke up early to visit le tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower). The line for the elevator was about 2 hours, so we decided to climb. It was a good call because we only had to walk to the second level (there are 4) and it was cheaper. After the second floor, we took the elevator. The top was magnificent (but cold). Afterwards, we took a long (and I mean like 3 miles, or a hour) walk to Notre Dame. This was also a cool place. We climbed the bell tower and saw Quasi Moto (no just kidding). But the bell tower. Before the bell tower, there was some strange man on the streets entertaining us. He had a mask. I took a video because he would walk behind people and scare them.

Then we visited some souvenir shops. Brad got a vin chaud (hot wine). Surprisingly, it was very good. We visited the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. By this time though, it was late afternoon and we were so tired. We tried to visit this huge department store (something Lafeyette), but it was huge and too much to handle at that point. We decided to go home.

We met up with another student at Oops! at this time, Lance. I decided to stay in because I have a cold and don't want to get worn down.

Today we traveled to our perminant destination, Avignon. We took the TGV (a fast train). It took about 2 hours and 40 minutes. I sat with Melissa. The train (and most everything for that sake) are very confusing and I'm glad other people were with me! We finally arrived at the hotel and I left with another group to see the city. It is so peaceful! People sit and stare at others and drink coffee and eat at the cafes. The sky was blue. It was warm (65 degrees or more). It made me feel better. Best of all, the people wear normal clothes. I was completely deceived. There are so many cool stores. I hope I don't spend a lot.

After shopping, we were a little late for our first meeting. There are only 2 people missing. We went to dinner at a different restaurant than we were suppose to, but none the less the food was great. I eat so much here (more than I want to). The wine kept on flowing. Let's just say, I had a good time.

Day 2: Paris!

After sleeping a wonderful 10 hours, I woke up to the sounds of a jack hammer outside our window. Then, I took the best shower of my life. It was refreshing after that long plane ride and trek across Paris. 

We ate breakfast and left around 10. Melissa couldn't come with us because she met up with some family. So, as decided the day before, Brad, Zoe and I headed to Versailles. It was a long rapid ride but it was worth it. Versailles was marvelous. And the gardens were huge. You cannot appreciate their size until you get lost trying to find Marie Antoinette's mini peasant town. It was so cool though. I wish I could see it when it was all in bloom. It took up most of our day, but we still managed to see l'Arc de Triomphe and pass by the Eiffel Tower. It was big and the street around it was crazy. We had to pass below the street.

This evening, all of us ate at a little cafe down the street. Wasn't as good. I had a pizza with tomatos, cheese, mushrooms and shoulders! Shoulders you ask? It's ham. Lesson number 2. Also, "crepe" is feminine or else it's "crap" to them. I didn't like the copious mushrooms. And it was huge. Then I ate a sugar crepe. It was good. It took us forever to finish dinner (2 hours). 

And here I sit, typing my blog. We're going out tonight despite our early morning. Oh well!!!

Pictures to come!

Day 1: It's almost over

Bonjour mes amis (Hello my friends)! So today I arrived in France. It was the longest plane ride of my life. I slept 5 minutes! I met this kid named Richard though. I'm not too sure what happened to him after the airport. He didn't speak French. It was his first plane ride and he had no idea what he was doing. Best of luck to him I guess! I also watched Changeling. It was a good movie. I recommend it. The food on the plane sucked. O well. 

But then I got to France! The farms looked so much greener and prettier from the plane. When I got to the airport I had no idea what was going on. I went up and down these nauseating escalators without steps. I didn't even realize that I had made it through customs. All they did was stamp my passport.  I could've had God only knows what! Then, I got really scared because it took my luggage forever to get out. After my brief panic attack (not really, just really worried) I got free and then had no clue what to do. This is when Richard disappeared. Au revoir! I hope I taught him enough French! 

So at this point I'm freaking out because I basically don't know where to go to find Brad (thanks bud, joking)! Brad was running a tiny bit late. I walked back and forth a few times wondering what the heck to do, people looking at me weird. Just when I wanted to sit on a bench and cry, I went to an escalator and the doors open and who appeared, but my roommate in France, Rachel! The doors just parted and there she was. A miracle I tell you. So we wait the other crew and head to find Zoe. Zoe disappeared and Melissa and I tried and tried to use a pay phone to get ahold of Brad (Lesson number 1: Dial 0 when using area code in country, not outside country). We asked an Israeli Frenchman for help and he let us use his phone card. God bless his soul. I wanted to kiss him. End of story: We found Zoe and Brad. But little did I know that the worse was yet to come...

...The trek our hostile was rough. Luckily Melissa and I didn't take a taxi. Brad saved us tons through the Metro (thank you Brad!) But we had to drag all of our luggage. It was heavy. And after the trudge to the other side of the airport we were not ready (and we were really tired) for the trek to the hostel. Poor Zoe even got stuck in a door. We went up and down probably at least 15 flights of stairs (no joke, and they weren't small flights!) I must say, I regret taking just that one extra small bag. I'm in pain. But as Brad said, we didn't have to pay a lot of money for a taxi!

We came out of the metro around the Oops! Hostel (good name right? I hope the people in the room next to me having sex against my wall didn't make any oops!) It was really quite cool and different. The trees, the birds, the people, the baby cars. It was cool. We looked like weirdos though with all our bags. But hey, were dumb American tourists! Bring on the funny looks!

We finally made it to the hostel and got our phones activated. It was expensive, but I don't plan on using it much. In the evening, we went down a cute street with shops and tons of places to eat. It was fun. I had the best dinner ever. And it ended with the best mousse au chocolat (chocolate mousse). Afterwards Brad bought a bottle of wine (its so cheap here!) and we went back to our room. I passed out around ten (only 5 pm in the states). It was an exhausting day!

Day 1: Before sleep

Three words: I made it.