Day 5: Il pleut, mais il ne neige pas et ça suffit./It's raining, but it's not snowing so that's okay.

Having only one class today was a nice break after having three classes yesterday. I am glad at least that those 3 classes were spread out over the day, it would have been even more tiring to have had them in a row.

Last night, my host mom told me that because there wasn't any particular show on tv to watch, she would show me how to use the DVD player. She had me watch Gran Torino, which is a Clint Eastwood movie. In addition to her love for the Bridget Jones movies, she also loves Clint Eastwood films. She was excited to share it with me and told me it was a great movie. She had practice for one of her upcoming shows that she had to go assist with last night (at the theater right below the house), so it was just me and the dog watching the movie.

I have not taken any more pictures recently because of the gray weather, but hope to do some exploring. In the center of the city and in the different squares, there are these really pretty lights that hang from the trees and look like snow falling as the light moves down and returns to the top of each separate string. I hope that I can get a picture that does it justice.

It is really fun to learn new things from my host mom. For example, I'd always been taught to say the time in French, for instance, 7:30, sept heure et demi ("seven o'clock and a half") and never to say sept heure trente ("seven thirty"). But when discussing how long a class lasted - an hour and a half - I asked her which way people say the time. She said that they used to say it the first way, but that now, with digital clocks that "7:30", they say it the second way.

(Above: Le Palais des Papes)

Also she gave me this kind of desert pudding to try with some kind of chestnut cream on the bottom to mix in with the yogurt/pudding. She seemed very surprised to learn that we don't have a food like that with chestnuts in the US. She was also very excited to learn the word in English. She described it to me in French and I figured out what it was she was talking about.


(Above: my foot on the path to le Palais des Papes and Le Palais des Papes)

After class and lunch, I went walking around Avignon a little bit because I was bored...and I'm in France, so what better to do?!? I walked down la Rue de la République, to the Place d'Horlage where there is a carousel. Then just beyond the Place d'Horlage is the Palais des Papes. I didn't make it further (I had hoped to go see Le Pont d'Avignon) but it started raining harder and I had left my parapluie back at Center. I took some photos which I will add later when I return home and have my camera-to-computer connector cables.

(Above: A hotel in the Place d'Horloge and a Carousel in the Place d'Horlage)

Above are my favorite pictures from my exploring today, but I will post more in an album on Facebook. If you don't have Facebook and would like to see the pictures, send me an email and I'll send them to you.

À demain.