Fondue-ing

Noel is going to be so jealous! I went to a real French fondue restaurant Tuesday night! It was so much fun!

The name of the restaurant is La Maison de Fondues. It was a cute little restaurant. A group of 9 of us went out for some nice food and a good time. It was the night before Nina's 20th birthday. 

The plates at the restaurant were super huge so Lance and I decided to share ours (even though I'm pretty sure it's rude to do that in France. I can't eat that much!) I was in a real "need meat" mood since I hardly ever eat it here, so Lance and I decided to get the Piemontaise. I think that

 was the name. It was deliciously seasoned beef with potatoes (another food I never eat here!) When the plate came it looked delicious (but uncooked), so we got to fondue-ing. Our table all got oil fondue plates. It was something different to do, cooking your own food. You had to be careful though that you cooked it all the way. They gave us lots of different sauces to dip the food in, too. There was so much flavor!

Afterwards, Lance and I decided to go all out and get dessert, too. We got this chocolate with peach alcohol. It was so delicious. Once we finished dipping all our fruit it, I decided to just finish the bowl of chocolate with a spoon. What can I say? I'm a chocolate lover. The price wasn't terrible when we shared. My whole meal was 15 euro.

I don't know if I told you but I'm getting super grades in my one class that actually gives me grades. I have a 90% average! This weekend were headed out to Lyon so I probably won't write about that trip until Sunday or Monday...

Gorde and Roussillon

Yesterday the group went on a great excursion to the Bories, Gorde, and Roussillon.

The Bories is an old village that was used a very long time ago (300 AD I think). All the homes are made of stone, without mortar. It's amazing that they still stand. The streets were crazy getting there, I thought we were going to fall of the steep cliff. 

Next we went to a town nearby, Gorde. It was so beautiful! The pictures I have don't even look like photos, they look like paintings it was so pretty. We ate lunch and I picked up some sleeping pills in this town. I don't understand how these people walk up and down the steep hills with cobblestone all the time!

Afterwards, we went to my favorite part of the trip, Roussillon. This is the site of the world's largest Ocre deposit. We learned how the ocre dyes were sifted out and processed a long time ago. It took a lot of work and a lot of time. Ocre is used for paints and dyes. It comes in white, orange, red and yellow. It was absolutely amazing to see the canyons of it. I was sad though because my camera battery died when we were there. I could have sat and looked at the scenery for hours. I wish my dad had been there, he would have loved it.

Then we went and got some delicious ice cream. I tested the flavor violette. It was interesting. They also had lavendar. The ice cream here is amazing. I had framboise, raspberry, and melon. The raspberry tasted like pure, fresh raspberries and it was so red! Delicious!

Other than that, this week was pretty chill. I saw Fast and Furious 4. It was not very good. I don't recommend it. But the movie theaters here are cool. They have candy shops. And the seats are so comfy! And the screens are huge! On Friday I saw "Coco avant Chanel," "Coco before Chanel." It is pretty big here right now. It has the French actress who played in "Amelie." I highly recommend that you see it when it comes out in the States. She did a phenominal job.

I think I just ate tuna fish =b

Let's talk food!

When I first came to France, I loved everything I ate. Don't get me wrong, food here is amazing and my host mom cooks like a chef (I think she should open a restaurant). Last week she had an American food party. She made the best hamburger I have ever eaten (better than the Applebees cowboy burger!)

Don't get me wrong, I have eaten some strange things that I think if I KNEW what I was eating, I probably would not eat it. I eat squash here a lot. I had some spinach soup. That was probably the most difficult to eat with a smile. Though, tonight's tuna fish was a bit rough and so was the goat cheese grilled cheese.

However, this week, Isabelle's ex husband is in town and I have not seen her in a few days. Jean Bernard cooks like a college students. Not so great. I am starting to miss American foods. Such as mac and cheese, grilled cheese, mashed potatos (any potato in general; one does not notice how much potato Americans eat until you leave the states), Ranch dressing, granola bars and MILK! 

In southern France, Provence, they eat lots of vegetables and today John Bernard told me that's why people live so long here. In northern France, all they eat is meat. So that explains all the strange old people I have seen and the multitudes of vegetables my intestines have been struggling to digest.

There are many foods I will miss when I go home. Pain au chocolat (Flaky croissant with chocolate) is my favorite and I eat one almost every day fresh from la patisserie (bakery). I also love croissants and wine and taboli! Oh boy do I love tabooli (don't know how to spell it, but it's like couscous). I kind of like eating healthy. We have full garbage bags comprised of souley yogurt containers. 

Welp, that's the food. I can't believe students at home are starting mid terms! I have been here a month as of yesterday. Time is flying!

Bronzer. And bug bites.

Oh the leisurely life of the French. The weather here has been beautiful. Lately, I just keep thinking about how lucky I am to be here and how crazy it will be to go home. I think it will be more of a culture shock going home than it was coming here!

So life, what have I been doing? Well I have these nasty mosquito bites on me. The bites are different here though; I got blisters from them. The worst is I have one on my face! Otherwise I've just been hanging this week. Today we cooked a meal at this indoor market nearby. It tasted pretty good. Then I layed outside the Palais de Papes on a hill in the sun and "bronzer" or tan. This afternoon I did some shopping with Rachel and bought the cutest shirt and necklace!!

Basically I'm living the life!

Except for the fact that I am not sleeping at all anymore. I wish I could have some Tylenol PM. And some mac and cheese. I thought I bought a box of mac and cheese the other day. Turns out it was just noodles! Psych! So mommy, if you'd like to ship me some I would love you. You could send some Tylenol PM, too! Just kidding! I can't wait for another sunny day tomorrow. 

Have fun in O-H-I-O!

I saw a bull die. No, make that SIX bulls =(

School update: The university was closed on Friday to everyone, even the International students. It is going to be closed all week, but of course, Christophe is finding a way to have class. So no worries, the money is still being put to use.

On to more interesting stuff...

Today I visited Arles with Melissa, Brad and Lance. They had wanted to go horseback riding but they wake up kind of late so we missed the bus from Arles to the horse place. That was fine with me though because I had never seen Arles. When we first got there, we ate. Then we walked around and saw a few of the places where Van Gogh painted his famous paintings. Arles is known to be home to Van Gogh. He painted Starry Night here on the Rhone. I saw the place where he painted Cafe de nuit, my favorite of his works. Sadly, the original cafe was bombed during WWII and the replica is far from what one sees in his painting.

After that, we went to see a corrida. I don't know the word in English. Maybe, bull fighting? With "torro" and stuff. Except, I didn't know that they KILL the bull. Brutely kill it. First they tease it, then a man on a horse stabs it twice in the back with a stick that grinds into the bull. Then they put six of these mini swords in its back, THEN the real toro man comes out and teases it more and then stabs it with a sword that goes all the way down its body. Then, when it finally falls over, they STAB IT IN THE HEAD!!! And to make things worse, they'll do that multiple times and then twist the knife around. Oh my God, it was awful. I paid to help fund that. I seriously cried after the second one. And from then on I could not look. It was awful. They were dripping with blood. One time, a guy got ran over. I was rooting for the bull I think. Wow, I guess I can check that off the French culture list. I'll probably have nightmares tonight.

Hope that did not ruin your day, or your appetite like it did to me!

Death by la poussiere

These allergies are killing me slowing. I feel as though I breathe in pure pollen. I can see it in the air and on the ground. And the worst part is "la poussiere," the dust. I cannot get it out. My eyes itch and hurt and are red. I use these eye drops, but they have stopped working.

I do not sleep anymore. I just toss and turn all night. Many of us have been experiencing nightmares. Students have also said that they have restless nights sleeps like I have where they feel like they are awake all night and "people" won't let them fall asleep. Sometimes I dream that I am stranded in a train station and a hoard of people rush off a train at me. And then I wake up. Other times I am lost in Avignon with my friends and I tell them I must go home and sleep, but they won't go home and I don't know the way. Those are 2, to name a few.

Allergies and nightmares are not helping, but they are not ruining my life here in Avignon. Everyday is new and fun. I can't believe a third of my trip is almost over!!!

L'école. Let's talk about school.

Nothing much has been going on lately. Sunday and Monday were spent sleeping and bronzer (tanning). There weather is sunny and in the 70s. Be jealous. 

So today I thought I would tell you a little bit about school. I've realized that you have no idea what I am studying (aside from France) and what I am learning. It is a big part of my life here. 

My first class on Monday and Tuesday is Grammaire (or grammar) with the program director, Christophe. It is a continuation of what I have been taking at school. We use the same book. We are reading three plays; Marius, Cesar, and Fanny (a trilogy). That class is not too hard, and I actually know what I am being graded upon. 

The next class that I take, l'histoire (or history)  is on Tuesday and Friday mornings with Monsieur Boura. He is the nicest man and he is very intelligent and enthusiastic. I feel bad because he knows so much about the topics, but can not explain much about them because he had to "dumb-down" the class to our level. In history, we look at a song and translate it. Then, we see where the song came from and the history behind it. For example, the first two weeks we learned about Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) and la Guerre de Cent Ans (the 100 years war). This week we started learning about the French Revolution. He tries to focus a bit on Avignon, too. It is interesting, but also boring at times. All my classes are two hours long, and when you get hungry and all you hear is French, you tend to zone out. I have no idea how I am being graded in history, as the French do not like to give out syllabuses. I just participate and ask questions as much as possible and do my homework.

Another class that I always have at the end of the day on Tuesday (6 hours of class, 8 hours at school) is le litterature (literature) with Monsieur Bory. He is very cute and people have told me that whenever they look at me in class, I have a glazed look and I am staring at him smiling. Sadly, today I learned that he is married with 3 kids. C'est dommage! (darnit) In this class we have two separate subjects. On Tuesdays we learn about French authors in general. It is very difficult, and I often zone out. It is like in depth English literature, but in French! On Fridays, we focus on Provencal literature (the area in which I am studying). It is almost the same. In this class, we will be doing two compositions on the literature and two 20-minute oral presentations. That's right, 20 minutes in French, explaining literature. I'd like to see me do that in English!

My next class in one class, but it is split between two teachers on Thursday. The first part of the class is kind of like grammar and writing, I guess. We write poems. It is a lot of fun. I feel like I am in second grade again. We made acrostic poems. This was mine:

S péciale   (special)

H onnête  (honest)

A imable   (amiable)

W (ise)      (sage) ---------------> "w" does not really exist in French. The only words with w's

                                                         came from the English language. Therefore I used an Eng word.

N erveuse (nervous)

A musante (amusing/funny)

I like this class the most out of them all because the professor treats us like little kids. The only bad part is that she smells un peu (a little).

The next part of this class is oral. I do not like this class. AT ALL. The professor is supposedly my neighbor somewhere around here. Half our grade is a 20 minute presentation and half our grade is a final. For MY project with my friend Melissa, we have to go out, record French people our age talking, write it down, and then correct their grammar. Other people are recording sports casts, or talking to politicians, or analyzing music. The basic point of this class is to examine how French people talk, and how it is grammatically incorrect, kind of like slang. The only problem is, we don't know slang French. Hmph. It is funny though because she teaches some of it and always tells Rachel and I never to use it in front of our host mom because she speaks very properly. And it is true. All the kids here say "ouyais" (pronounced "way") instead of "oui" (pronounced "wee") because it is like saying "yeah" instead of "yes." But at home we get in trouble if we say that.

So those are the classes I take all week. We do not have class on Wednesday, unless we have Monday or Friday off. Basically we have 4 days of class per week. The only bad part is that the lunch breaks are 2-4 hours long. So, for example, on Thursday I only have 4 hours of class, but I also have a 4 hour break, so I am at school for 8 hours. It takes me a half hour to walk home so it would be pointless for me to go back. School is 2 miles from my house and 4 miles a day is more than enough. However, sometimes we do go shopping and eat and tan and use the Internet during this time.

And one last thing. The University is still on strike. It has been for 3 months now. This is a HUGE problem in France. From what I understand, President Sarkozy just made a law that says that college students now have to pay for school. Before, school was free for students. All you had to do was pass the extremely difficult BAC (like a super hard SAT) and you could go to school for free. Well, the French being the French, decided that they would not put up with the bullshit and are striking. However, the students will still have to take their finals at the end of the semester even though they have no learned the material. Last week they went to school for one day to catch up on what was going on. My thoughts are, if it is free for them, why don't they just drop out for the semester and go back to school when the strike is solved? It is very complicated, but this is what I understand of it from my French professors.

Hope I have not bored you too much! Just wanted to show you that I am learning a lot =)