Le 79ieme Jour: J'attendais pour la pluie d'arreter. / I was waiting for the rain to stop.

1. Woke up to pouring rain. By the p.m. it was bright and the sun was shining.
2. Only had one class, but a lot of work none the less.
3. Wore flip-flops for the first time in public in France. I don't plan on doing it again. I felt like a tourist. No respectable European wears flip-flops.
4. Had artichokes for dinner. Learned how to "correctly" eat them.
5. Ate a mango (un mangue) for breakfast. Michel explained to me how to cut it and eat it last night, but it was still difficult to eat/figure out.
6. I decided that besides my host family, the next thing about France that I am going to miss the most is the food. The freshness, the availability, the inexpensiveness of eating healthy, and the numerous bakeries on every corner (like the number of Dunkin Donuts that surround my house, except even more so!).

Le 78ieme Jour: Lentement./Slowly.

Weekend: Contemporary Art Museum, Picasso Museum, Renoir Museum, Matisse Museum, and Chagall Museum. My favorite was probably (and surprisingly) the Contemporary Art Museum and the Chagall Museum. The weekend was jam packed, getting up bright and early every morning. Our directrice, Sylvie, reminds me a lot of Mr. Horne on our spring break trips. Go, go, go! It was nice to get places on time/early, but it wasn't always so nice getting up at 7am every morning of the weekend. I don't even get up that early on weekdays when I have classes! :-)

We also had daylight savings this weekend, which meant that we lost an hour of sleep on top of not getting to sleep in. However, I am now enjoying the fact that it is light out almost until 8pm, which is an added bonus. I don't know how I'm going to like it in the mornings. I hope it is still bright when I wake up. That is half the reason I get out of bed in the morning...because I can see that there is daylight!
The weather was beautiful, warm, etc in Nice. No Mistral! We also had a "stop over" in Cannes - yes, like the International Film Festival - for a couple hours and went to the beach there as well. It was nice to see the ocean, but made me miss home a little bit. At the same time as it made me miss home, it was also nice to have a taste of home in France!

Today I got up, showered, and went into school to do work. That is always a bad plan I've discovered. But I had to go in to discuss with my group...which didn't end up happening until hours later.

Spent most of the day in class and doing homework. The ray of sunshine in the shadows (aka the dark clouds of homework that I have) was that I received a postcard from Celine, who is studying in Rome! It's so nice to get mail! :-)

I have a busy week ahead, but I hope to be able to take some quick study breaks so as not to get bogged down/stressed out.

Le 75ieme Jour: J'espère qu'il fait beau à Nice!/I hope it's nice in Nice!

• This weekend: Traveling to Nice with my Art History class.
  
• Today: Lit. class - have a creative assignment with incorporating words into a text.
• Today: University class - exam next week.
• Today: cloudy but bizarrely not cold.
• Next week: lots of assignments and deadlines.
• Dinner: croquettes or coquettes (I'm not sure) & potatoes, cabbage, and carrots.
• Desert: Michel asked to eat the chocolate covered cranberries. Or more he asked if I had any left.
• After Dinner: Watched the movie the Gangs of New York - I never realized how long that movie was, but I do like Leonardo DiCaprio.
• After Movie: Packed and Skyped with my parents and then with Celine.
  

Le 74 Jour: Je porte plusieurs casquettes./ I wear many hats.

Highlights of the Day

The phrase "I wear many hats" actually exactly translates into French - a rare occurrence between figurative phrases in French and English.

Michel returned today from Togo! He called this morning to tell Claudie he had arrived in Marseille and would be home around 11 or 11:30!

I had three classes today: Art History, History, and Poli. Sci.

Art History: we got off on a tangent discussing the utility or lack thereof of titles for paintings.

History: we discussed France's situation in 1950 compared to the late 70s/early 80s. We had previously discussed the riots that took place all over France in 1968 and the protests that had caused the Avignon Theater Festival to split into two separate festivals: "In" and "Off". Claudie actually had stories from these. She was living in Paris (there were protests in Paris as well) and she had returned to Avignon for the Festival so saw the protests here as well!

Poli. Sci.: -. Enough said.

I ended up not going to choir. Today was the last rehearsal before the concert and since I'm not going to be in the concert, I thought it better to not attend today's rehearsal so they could rehearse the songs with choreography they way they will be performing them on Saturday at the concert.

Claudie made chicken and ratatouille for dinner. She mentioned that she will give me the recipe for ratatouille- I thought she had forgotten. I'm glad she didn't!

It turned out well that I was dinner. I actually participated in the conversation. ... Like with multiple interjections and explanations! :-)

Found out that Claudie and Michel aren't actually married. Claudie said she feels like marriage is only related to religion, that it is a religious ceremony. Michel also added that in the 60s/70s, it was the "hippy age" and of women's rights, etc. He explained that marriage was created by men to make women under their power and submissive to them. He thought instead, people should have to renew their marriage every few years, like the presidential election that takes place every 5 years. It gives people options and keeps people on their toes. He's such an creative thinker.

All night at dinner I kept noticing this whole coconut sitting on the corner of the table. At the end of dinner Michel offered some to me, and of course I agreed! He had brought it home fresh from Togo. SOOOOO DELICIOUS! Unbelievable!

Watched a movie called "Le Fauteuil hanté" - "the haunted arm chair". It was a fictional story about how multiple people serving in the same role (sitting in the same chair so to speak) in The Academy, mysteriously died (each one being replaced and then the replacement dying). It was funny, but not amazing. I had set a goal today to learn furniture vocab like "table", "sofa", and "arm chair". Both the word for sofa and arm chair just came up today over the course of my day. So it's not like I even looked them up because I wanted to learn that vocab, but because I came across the word and wanted to know what it was. Oh France and its fate! : )

Bisous! Bisous!
Ciao!

Le 73ieme jour: Le printemps arrive!/Spring is here!

Beautiful weather today. Wore my sandals and was very comfortable.

Had Lit. class where we are discussing "The Other". We are currently discussing Marguerite Duras, though I don't 100% understand her relationship to the discussion of "The Other". I hope that perhaps the next class will clarify that a little.

Today's weather was gorgeous. I think it was well over the forcasted 15 degrees Celsius - 59 degrees Fahrenheit! How awesome!?!?! I booked my hotel for Cassis for spring break. It is a small fishing village along the coast of the Mediterranean...the pictures of it look gorgeous with sandy white beaches and steep, rocky cliffs. I can't wait to go!

I came home a little early, It was relaxing to sit in my room with my tall, narrow window open and the light breeze blowing in!

I helped set the table for dinner. I always try to each night, but I always manage to arrive too late and she's already done it. Today I arrived just while she was in the process of doing so! Super exciting. Well, I guess not, but I was glad that I was able to help! The dog was going crazy and has been the past couple of days. I think it's a combination of Gabi (Claudie's daughter) and her cat (Ramon) just leaving and also Woody's anticipation of Michel returning to Avignon tomorrow. I have learned so much vocabulary variation just from what Claudie says to Woody (Calme-toi, Tais-toi, Pousse-toi...).

Claudie had to do the bills and accounting stuff today for the theater. I told her that my parents are both math teachers. She told me that she was never good at math, but always enjoyed languages (Latin, Spanish, and English) and things like that.

After that, she pretty much left to go down to the rehearsal she has every Tuesday night. I watched some tv but then went in for the night around 11:30pm (23h30 - much simpler way to do it, doesn't require any "a.m." or "p.m." nonsense!).

We had eggs with smoked ham (jambon fumé, kind of like bacon) for our first course and the spaghetti with tomato sauce and grated cheese for the second course.

Day 72: La liste de ce que j'ai fait. /The list of what I did.

Things that happened...

In Amsterdam:
1. Van Gogh (pronounced Van Gawg in France) Museum
2. Reijsk Museum
3. Visit with Adriana
4. Ate "traditional" Dutch food
5. Saw canals at night
6. Ate Ben&Jerry's
7. Ran into Jon Chu (someone from F&M for those who don't know) on vacation in Amsterdam

Today:
1. Nice long sleep
2. Shower
3. Carrefour (crossroads) aka grocery store
4. Received 2 letters in the mail:
i. St Paddy's Day card from my parents
ii. Easter card from grandmother
5. Class
6. Dinner
7. Made plans for Sam to visit me and for when my family comes to visit

Day 68: Fête du Printemps! / Spring Celebration!

• Lit. class: talked about photography, mixed media artists, etc.
• Lunch
• Returned home to see if I could help with the cooking for the party tonight. She had already made the "tarte aux tomates" and showed me where the tart and wine were that I was supposed to bring.
• Met Jen at the Institute to walk to the University class. Class was very fast paced ("très chargé" with 8 pages of notes, scribbling notes almost constantly for an hour and a half. Informative, but I left with a cramped hand.
• Went home, prepped for the fête, got the tarte and wine, and headed back to the Institute.
  
• The celebration was good. Sat with Jen and her host dad, Matt and his host mom, and Alaska. There was Easter stuff everywhere - chocolate eggs, etc.
  
• Most families made tarts, quiches, or something circle on a crust! (+ a salad)
  
• Deserts ranged from chocolate mousses, to chocolate cakes, to pastries, to apple tarts.
  
• Overall - delicious! :-)
• TOMORROW: I leave for AMSTERDAM!!! I won't be bringing my computer so this will be my last blog until Sunday or possibly Monday.

Bon week-end!

Day 67: Bon anniversaire! / Happy birthday!

My Actual Schedule Today

• Classes 9:30-11am, 11:30-1:45, 2-3:30, 4:30-6pm
• Chorale 6-8:30pm
• Birthday celebration 8:30pm-midnight

Highlights from each of the above bullet points

• Class: For history, we watched a movie called Le Bataille d'Alger, the Battle of Algers, about Algeria's fight for independence from France. It was produced by a man who had lived in Algeria and fought on behalf of the resistance movement (FLN?) along with an Italian producer.
• General statement about classes: More and more people have started bringing their ocmputers to class and not using them to take notes, or taking notes typing really loudly (pecking style). It is really distracting to me. I have to figure out a way to ignore it or make it stop.
  
• Chorale: Our rehearsal today was basically a run through of the concert we will be having in 2 weeks. I told the director that I won't be able to make it to that concert. It's frustrating and upsetting that I can't participate, but at the same time, I am still enjoying my time in the chorale. People are just starting to warm up to me - I get kisses now for greetings. I am no longer the lonely foreign student.
• Birthday celebration; -arrived home after chorale, they were still on the aperatifs and opening presents -2 kiss greetings happen in Paris and 3 kiss greetings happen in Avignon as I re-remembered when greeting Gabi, Claudie's daughter who lives in Paris. Gabi speaks English (I think very well -I am so surprised at the excellent speaking abilities and random vocabulary that the French people know in English. For example: fossilized.) -Claudie mentioned that she thinks my french has greatly improved since I have arrived. This made me really happy!! :-) -For dinner was whole crawfish/large shrimp, and indian chicken. Claudie was very upset because she had left the chicken cooking/boiling to long so it had broken off the bone/wasn't as presentable as she wanted it to be. She really takes pride in her cooking. -Gabi kept switching between French and English. In addition, she can also converse in Spanish. -After dinner, we talked about traveling, the importance of getting to know the people and customs, not just sightseeing and having leisure time. Truly exploring and experiencing the daily life of the people in the place you are visiting. I thought this was interesting because I totally agree. Gabi and Claudie both agreed but her mother just likes to know a few people very well and when she travels she likes to get the ambiance of the place she is visiting, but doesn't even notice/ignores the people.
  

Bisous.
Ciao!

Day 66: ----

A pretty light day today. One class - Lit. Lunch, etc. Came home a little early. It was beautfiul weather today, nice and warm.

We will be having the birthday dinner tomorrow instead of Friday, thus I can attend!

Tomorrow I have a very busy schedule: Class 9:30-11, 11:30-1:30, 2-3:30, 4:30-6; Choir 6:15-8:15; Birthday celebration 8:15 to ???.

I "helped"/ watched Claudie make the hamburgers tonight. We had salad, hamburger, and "American style" fries (which Claudie laughed about because we call them "French fries"!).

After that, I skyped with my parents and worked on planning their trip here in April.

Ciao!

Day 65: Après la première tour./After the first round. [of elections]

The first round of regional elections took place yesterday. There are A LOT of parties in France. To name a few there is the Front Nationale (FN, the extreme right), the UMP (l'Union pour un Mouvement Populaire - the right), la Parti Socialiste (PS- the left), le Modem (centrist party), and l'Écologiste Européen (the left). Claudie voted for the Écologiste Européen party. She explained that she voted for this party during the first round to show what types of policies she wanted in place, but will vote for the PS in the second round because she wants the left to win. Sarkozy is the UMP and most of the French people that I've met and from what I can gather, they don't like him.

These are regional - not presidential - elections. Our region is the PACA (Provence, Arles, Côte d'Azur). Being just the first round of elections, any party that doesn't earn more than a certain percentage of votes (I think it's 10% but I'm not positive) can move on to the next round but has to "buddy up with another party" or something like that. If you get over a different specific percentage point, you can pick your candidate to present in the 2nd round. If you are under a certain amount, you're out. The big news was that there were a record number of voters who didn't show up to vote (a record number of abstentions) - over 55% of voters didn't get out and vote. Claudie was very upset about this and has told me multiple times that she is going to remind and make sure all of her friends get out and vote next Sunday (the 2nd round). In the PACA, the UMP and the PS got the same percentage points (about 26%) and the FN got 20%. This is a huge jump for the FN, which bodes not well for policy. Claudie described them as a party that puts forth racist ideas and who are bigots. My history professor put it more gently and described them as the party that is majorly against immigration and blames the immigrants for all the problems - unemployment, the economic crisis, etc. My Poli. Sci. professor described them as fascists.

We watched a news broadcast show where they were updating the voting outcomes and rotating through the different "deputés" of the parties for discussion. It got really heated and really amusing to watch, though difficult to understand because sometimes 3 people would be trying to talk at once. I don't think I could even understand that in English!

I had 3 classes today because we had a double session of history to make up for one the professor had canceled earlier in the semester. It was a little tiresome having class 11:30-1pm, 2-3:30pm, and 4:30-6pm. In between 1 & 2, I ate lunch, and then in between 3:30 and 4:30, I fixed/sewed the buttons onto Mirel's jacket.

We were supposed to have dinner tonight to celebrate Claudie's mother's 89th birthday. However, it got canceled. Claudie's daughter's, Gabi, cat got loose so she had to find the cat before leaving, thus missing her train, etc. Therefore, she won't be arriving until Wednesday and they won't be doing the birthday celebration until Friday or Saturday. I won't be here Friday or Saturday because I am headed to Amsterdam this weekend. Therefore, I will still be able to meet Gabi, but I won't be able to participate in the birthday celebration.

But because of that, Claudie had made a huge meal and bought a cake. We had cooked zuccini and squash with garlic and herbs, and then spicy Indian chicken. The cake she had bought at a bakery. It was chocolate and orange with sugared/dried (kind of reminded me of the texture of marmalade) oranges on one layer, a layer of chocolate mousse on another, and a layer of something else. On top were some tiny macroons (not to be confused with macaroons) which I thought would be amazing, but I don't feel like they are anything special. But the cake was delicious!!!

We watched a movie called, La Verité, with Bridget Bardot. Then we watched a movie called something like, Paranoia in Las Vegas, (that is my exact/rough translation from French - I know that's not what it's actually called in English) with Johnny Depp. While watching the movie, Claudie began re-apolstering a chair with black and red fabric. She and Michel are definitely all about the black and red interior decorating.

Day 64: Le temps fait mal chaque dimanche./There is bad weather every Sunday.

Coucou! (Hey there!)

Last Sunday, snow. Today, gusts over 30 mph (no, I haven't started using metric just because I'm not in the US anymore).

Woke up insanely early after spending a fun evening over at Alaska's cooking, eating, and chatting last night. Rolled over after hearing the Mistral, got up to close my curtain, and put on some tv on my computer, rolled over to go back to sleep. I ate a lunch of leftovers with Alaska, Alyssa, Mirel, and Sarina (Mirel's friend who is visiting) - pesto/creme fraiche pasta, couscous vegetable mix, and hot cocoa with whipped cream (chantilly!).

Spent most of the day over at Alaska's. Her host mom returned briefly, only to go back to her daughter's because her daughter recently had a bad fall. She walked into the kitchen while I was washing my dishes and said "Hey" - I responded "Bonjour." Then she proceeded to tell us/Alaska that we could put the dishes in the dishwasher.

I left a little while after. Returned home, did laundry - by myself (no help pressing buttons, putting in detergent, etc.)!! I know that may not seem like a big feat, but for me/France, it is at the moment. 50 minutes later, I hung it out on the truc (the gadget/thing/apparatus) for drying clothes on.

Then we ate dinner. La soupe du soleil, fish that she bought fresh from Les Halles, and a vegetable combo. And evidemment (of course), a petite tasse du café (a small cup of coffee) to follow.

We watched the movie, Amadeus. It is apparently an old American movie based around the story of "Mozart's life" and interactions with this other classical musician who was lost in Mozart's shadows. It was well done, but a little simple for my tastes.

À demain.

Day 62 & 63: Le week-end/The weekend

Friday
Art History class - Mirel presented and did an amazing job. The professor ate it up. We got back our exams and the professor told us she was changing the style of the class because had all done so well. We can no longer go without speaking...we have to share our thoughts and knowledge. We looked at some paintings by Courbet. The image I input on today's entry is a picture I then saw later (as a print) at the movie theater! :-)

So then, the day passed uneventfully. We wandered around and did a little window shopping. I picked up the art history book I had ordered from the FNAC (the french version of Barnes&Nobles plus Best Buy) for my university class.

After that, I picked up my stuff from the Institute and went home. I was about to head out to meet up with some friends at 6pm. I told Claudie I was heading out and she said that we would be eating earlier than normal because she wanted to go out to see a movie. She invited me to go see the movie with her - Ghost Writer - and I accepted, of course! So, I returned home at 7 to eat dinner: some vegetable (I don't remember) and potatoes à gratin.

At dinner, I told Claudie that I was going on an excursion tomorrow to Saint Remy and Les Baux de Provence. She told me that the wind is very strong because the village, Les Baux, is very high up, but that never the less, it is very beautiful.

We went to the movie at the Utopia theater (République), which is where I saw the reprint of the Courbet painting just hanging on the wall like no big deal. It was cool to be able to recognize what I was looking at! I felt special.

So we watched the movie. Because it's at Utopia (they show foreign films in their original language with French subtitles), the film was in English. Even though it was in English, I don't think I really understood how it fit together. It was too simple a story for me for my interpretation to be the correct one. Therefore, I will have to rewatch it with someone when I come back to the States and have them explain it to me.

Saturday
Got up this morning and got on the bus to go to St. Remy/Les Baux. It is only about 45 minutes away, which was quite a change from what I was expecting.

First we went to St. Remy. There are what are called "Les Antiques" - aka the ruins from Antiquity aka the Romans. We ancient arch ways that marked the Roman conquering of the city. Then we went and saw an asylum where Van Gogh had been for a part of his life and saw some of the views that inspired quite a few of his paintings.

After that, we left to go to Les Baux. We got lunch. Though we all broke off into smaller groups, 12 of the 14 students ended up at the same restaurant. I got a ratatouille crepe, split a bruschetta, and had fondant au chocolat (a chocolate cupcake-esque cylinder with hot fudge "filling" in the middle!).

Then we went to the "chateau". More like a castle built into the cliffs. At first, it was hard to tell that it was even a castle, it blended in so well with the rest of the cliffs. We got lots of beautiful pictures. The wind was crazy blowing - it was unbelievable! We left there a little early, thus getting home to Avignon a little early.

I got home and skyped with my mom and then met up with my friends at the grocery store to get food for our meal we were making at Alaska's. The food was delicious and we had lots of leftovers. We will be going back over tomorrow for lunch to finish them off.

Good night!
Bisous!

Day 61: Pas beaucoup. / Not much.

Today I had Lit. class and my university class. In Lit we watched some clips of people who do "Slam" - a kind of mix between spoken poetry and rap. Before leaving this morning, Claudie told me that she was going to see a show/performance tonight and wouldn't be around for dinner, but that she would leave me something to reheat/eat for dinner.

The projector/computer connection was working today during the university class, making things a lot easier to understand. The other girl I am taking the class with and I pledged to speak french while at the University and on our way to and from. I'm sure it will get easier/I will be able to make better conversation with time.

I returned home around 7pm to find a note from Claudie that dinner was on the stove in the red casserole/pot. It was sauerkraut with meats! Yumm! I set the table for myself, put on the radio, and enjoyed my dinner while listening to classical music!

I had watched a little McGyver (in french, of course!) before dinner, and it was still on afterward. I watched the end of the episode that was on. I then found the movie, Milliardaire malgré lui. It's a movie about a police officer who ends up winning the lottery and had promised as payment to a waitress to either come back the next day or to give her half the winnings of the lottery if he won. He wins, his wife is very upset that he promised to split the money. Eventually they divorce and he ends up with the waitress.

I am working on making plans for spring break. I am trying to pick a country where I haven't yet visited. However, at the same time, I still have a lot of France to see and not a lot of available weekends!

Bisous!

Day 60: Je suis propre, mais je vais à Bath quand même!/ I am clean, but I am giong to Bath anyway!

Woke up this morning ... kind of early (8:30am) for my 9:30 Art History class. Before heading out, Claudie said to me "Il y a beaucoup de Mistral" aka the wind is a killer.

In class, we talked about the artist Gaspar David Friedrich. One of his paintings was on the front of my HIS360 book by Gaddis last semester.

After class, I was busy working on applications for summer stuff. Mirel and I took a break and went to Les Halles. I didn't buy anything, but just love walking around and breathing in the fresh smells of fruits, vegetables, meats, and breads.

After les Halles and working on summer apps, I had two more classes in the afternoon - History and Poli. Sci. The professor talked about the show I watched last night about the movie "La Rafle" about the thousands of French Jews deported from Vel'd'Hiv (in the south of France) under the Vichy regime. I felt really special that I had watched it...I was the only one who had seen the show about it last night. Thank you, Claudie, for always pointing me in the right direction as to what shows to watch.

In Poli Sci, I had my "Revue de Presse" aka review of current event news relating to the EU. I did fine and am glad it's done.

After that I had choir. I made it there without a hitch ... If you recall, last week I had to take multiple buses, etc. to get to rehearsal. Rehearsal was fun - choreography is complicated in french - "à la face" means to the side, but to WHICH side?!??!? So I got a ride home, got home, ate dinner. Dinner was some kind of delicious soup. It looked like pea soup, but it tasted like a combo of tomato, garlic, and lentils! In addition to soup, had tart (which as far as I can tell is a mini quiche, but I'm sure there is another difference that I'm not aware of) that had red peppers in it. And finally, épinards aka spinach. It was in some kind of butter combo sauce so it tasted okay, but to be honest, cooked spinach always makes me gag a little. It tasted good, I think for me it's just the texture. Then I went to write down the date of my concert for the chorale...It is the same weekend as my Art History excursion (which I'm pretty sure is required/don't want to miss). So, next week, I will have to talk to the director when I arrive and let him know/see what needs to happen.

I watched the 2nd part of a show Claudie and I watched last week about the 50s in France. It was well done, and I could understand it for the most part. Then I came back to my room (this whole time, Claudie was downstairs at a dance class...she didn't come back up until after 11:15pm). I skype chatted with Annie and booked my flight to go to Bath!!!!!!

Bonne journée/soirée/nuit ... depending on what time zone you're in!

Day 59: Quelqu'une qui parle l'anglais? / Someone who speaks english?

The title of my blog was what someone said to me (in English) while I was waiting for a friend to get out of a dressing room. I was almost surprised myself! In general, in stores/in public, I am so surrounded by French and so used to speaking french with everyone in public, that I was taken aback by my response in english!??!

Had Lit. class today. We watched film clips about choreographers/dancers that do contemporary style dance - two people remain touching for the entire dance, dancing on walls instead of floors, doing almost mime type stuff. Bizarre/interesting.

Spent the rest of the day working on homework and summer applications. Sometimes this poses nearly impossible as the Institute is not always as quiet an environment as I would like it to be.

Came home, ate dinner - salmon filet and "chinese" noodles (skinny, dark yellow/brown, long noodles) with small nuts, carrots and other veggies mixed in. Watched a highlight about a movie coming out in theaters tomorrow based off actual peoples' stories who experienced the "mass exodus" of Jews out of the "Liberated Zone" of southern France during WWII under the Vichy regime. ... I definitely want to go see it. I love that many French movies are historical fiction (largely based in truth) instead of movies like "Superbad".

À demain.

Day 58: Je suis très occupée./I am very busy.

List of things that amuse me about France:
1. They love Westerns and often use Westerns as their model for what the United States looks like.
2. They all love Obama.
3. They call hamburgers steak.
4. Healthy food is cheap.

List of why I am busy:
1. Travel plans for myself
2. Applications for summer stuff
3. A class presentation on Wednesday
4. Bad weather makes me unmotivated so it takes longer to accomplish tasks.

List of what I did today:
1. Stayed inside this morning finishing up homework. It is much quieter, and thus easier and more efficient, at home than at the Institute.
2. Went to classes (history and poli. sci). Got back one of my midterms. Did well! :-)
3. Ate dinner then watched the météo and a Western (The Cheyenne) with Claudie.
4. Worked on a task from my "list of reasons why I am busy"

List of reasons why I did lists for today's blog:
1. Not a lot happened.
2. It's late.
3. I'm tired.
4. I'm busy.

À bientôt!
Ciao!

Day 57: Les flacon (du neige) créent la necessité d'utiliser mon capuchon. /The flakes (of snow) necessitate that I wear my hood.

Snow. Again.

So last night after dinner we were watching the "météo" (phonetically: the may tay oh) aka the weather (notice that root in the word "meteorology") and they predicted snow in the mountains of the south, but just rain or light snow in the rest of the south of France. Ils ont dit un mensonge aka Lies. It snowed today, hard core - probably over 6 inches of snow.

I ventured out into the snow and it started to snow even harder. I plans to go see a movie with Mirel and Alaska (because we didn't end up going yesterday). I met Mirel for a quick bite to eat (I had already eaten lunch with Claudie) and then we headed to the theater, Utopia, near the Palais des Papes to see the film, Une execution ordinaire. It is about a female doctor who has a gift for healing and Stalin finds out about it, takes her into his service, causing much backfire at her workplace and within her family. I really liked the movie. It was really well done and I understood what was going on 90% of the time (there was a point where she ate a letter that Stalin had written - I didn't entirely understand that part). So, I was telling Claudie tonight at dinner that we went to see the movie, and she proceeded to tell me that she had taken an acting course with the actor who plays Stalin in the movie. How cool is that?!?!

Anyway, for dinner, we ate this dish that was chicken and then some other kind meat wrapped inside a layer of thin lard and bacon, then tied up with string. It is the second time we've had it, and it's very good. She told me the name of it (and I said it back to her a couple times) but now the name has escaped me. It's something that has a 'p' in it and an 'ette' sound in it...if that helps you. We also had "artichaut à la barigoule" - small artichokes boiled/cooked with mushrooms and small potatoes. Artichokes taste great, but for the hassle of eating them, it's a little frustrating. Also, I feel a little foolish eating an artichoke in front of Claudie - it is so messy and she is always so "proper" when eating!

The pictures of the cards are a small example of how I "revamped" my room a little while tidying up on Saturday.

The pictures of the snow I am posting is while it was still snowing so picture almost double the amount of snow than in is the pictures. Claudie told me she has never seen it snow in the month of March, let alone snow this much!

Let's hope it warms up.

Day 56: Une spectacle. / A performance.

Je me suis levée. Claudie m'a dit qu'elle faisait des courses. Je suis partie pour visiter les Halles - le marché des fruits, des legumes, du pain, et des viandes. Je n'ai rien mangé et n'ai que senti toute la nourriture.

Je suis rentrée chez moi. Une de mes amies m'a appelé pour decider où de manger le dejeuner. Nous avons trouvé un petit restaurant de pâtes. Après, nous avons fait des achats. Je cherchais (et j'ai trouvé!) des bottes marrons ... pour 10 Euro!

~~~

I got up. Claudie told me she was going shopping. I left to go to les Halles - the fruit, vegetable, bread, and meat market. I didn't eat anything and only went to smell the foods.

I returned home. One of my friends called me to pick out where to eat lunch. We found a small pasta restaurant. After, we went shopping. I was looking for (and I found) brown boots ... for 10 Euros!

After that we sat down got hot drinks and pastries then went our separate ways home. I returned home, watched some tv while researching where my family can go up in Normandy to see everything they want to.

We ate an early dinner because of the dance performance at 8:30. We ate something that I thought was a pizza at first but was more like a crepe bottom with a thin crust covered in onions, ham cubes, and creme fraiche sauce. I thought it was called femme blanche, but I googled that and there are no recipes for it, so I think that's wrong. Anyway, it was delicious.

Then I went to the Indian Dance performance. It was really cool. The woman wore a really bright pink/orange/red tone outfit with a kind of pleated half moon piece of fabric over the front from hip to hip, and jingle bell anklets that made noise every time she moved. It was really cool. The "prayer" part at the beginning was in French and the music was whatever language they speak in India (I apologize for not knowing this).

I then got to skype with people for the next 3+ hours. Shout outs to those who I talked to (and to those whom I will soon skype with).

Day 55: Le Mistral revient. / The Mistral has come back.

It was windy today. I thought the Mistral had "disappeared" but clearly that was only temporary.
I took my last exam - art history - and my brain is just emotionally drained and thus very dysfunctional. So much so that when I am speaking in English, it is like I am translating directly from French...making my brain hurt more.

I finalized my plans for Amsterdam - we booked our hostel, now all set to go! After that I hung out with some friends until about 6:30pm - celebrating being done with exams. :-)

Tomorrow we are planning to go see the movie "Welcome". It was nominated/won a lot of "French Oscars" aka "Les Césars" (which were on last week).

Tonight I pretty much stayed in. I had planned to go out with friends - dancing and celebrating -- but I was so tired after dinner, I was in and out of sleep in front of the tv with Claudie from 9:30 until midnight. ... I should have gone to bed at 9:30 but the show we were watching, Wollander, was a really well crafted mystery/investigation movie.

Day 54: Une bêtise / Monkey business

So I am quite tired, probably because of my busy week and all my "adventures"

...donc...

I am going to just give some bullets about my day so I can go to sleep but so I can have blogged as well (I know that phrase sounds funny but whatever!).

1. Handed in my forms for my visa to my program's assistant. She is mailing/faxing everyone's forms to OFII (France's Office of Immigration & Integration).
   
2. Class at 11am until 12:30pm. Lit. Did a visualisation about our first memory of France. Mine was waiting for my suitcase at Charles de Gaulle airport.
   
3. After that, lunch was good. I've gotten much better at buying groceries for lunch, aka I try to no longer purchase junk food. I understand why French people are skinny - it's cheaper to eat healthier. I can get enough lettuce to last me a week's worths of salads at lunch for 1 Euro. I can get 2 clementines and an apple for just over 1 Euro. How delicious and nutritious is that?!?!
4. Relaxed a little - watched some tv on my computer while having cookies and milk! (I bought milk here - it's the first time I've consistently had milk since being in France. I really missed it!)
5. Had my University class. The projector/computer connection wasn't working so it was harder to follow what was going on. Normally when I don't know a vocab word I can figure it out from looking at the painting. Learned a new word - coquillage: sea shell, and specific type of coquillage is a nautil or nautilus shell!...but didn't know what it was until after I returned home from class and looked it up.
6. We ate a late dinner. Claudie has been busy working on the "program" (booklet/schedule/descriptions) for the Festival d'Avignon in July. She said there are over 900 productions/performances! She has been putting in pictures, etc. A very long, complicated process.
7. We had poisson rougé, which literally means "red fish," for dinner as well as a pasta, spinach, salmon cube combo. To top it off, she had bought pre-made chocolate crêpes for dessert! She heated the crêpes in the high-tech toaster oven, and we ate them with our petits tasses (tiny mugs) of coffee.

À demain.

PS: Une bêtise is my new favorite french word which literally means monkey business (well at least according to "wordreference.com"). I asked Claudie what it meant and she basically described it as "foolishness" or a "joke" and used an example of little kids doing something ridiculous. She asked me what the word was in english and I told her "monkey business." She then re-translated that phrase to "singe d'occupation" or something like that. She said they have the same phrase in French! :-)

Day 53: Presque finis. / Almost done.

...That is to say that I'm almost done with exams. Good thing. I think my brain is about to explode from all the studying. I think - if it's possible - I studied too much. Thanks F&M for instilling/exacerbating that quality within me. Anyway, I have one exam left - on Friday for Art History.

Needless to say, after my 2 hardest exams basically back to back, my brain was a little fried today. Our Poli Sci professor didn't show up until about half way through class. "Luckily" the assistant/secretary had the copies of the exams, so she just administered them us instead ... 10-15 minutes late.

So after that exam, I had to leave for choir. Now normally I leave from Place Pie, take bus 1, "Le Pontet le Lac" direction. Place Pie is currently under MAJOR construction and the bus stop area has been moved to outside of Les Halles. I got to Place Pie, noticed that there was a bus that said "Le Pontet le Lac," but #12, instead of #1. But in my current "muddled-brain" state, I wasn't thinking clearly so I was like, "okay, well Le Pontet le Lac is the same direction, maybe with all the construction they changed the bus numbers. No!?!...Duh!!" Well needless to say I got on the bus and realized it after the 3rd or 4th stop. The first few stops were the same. So at that point, I went up the driver and asked him if the bus stopped at or if he knew where the "Boccace" stop was. He said it wasn't on the bus, but the older woman sitting in the seat up front asked and told me - after conversing with the driver - that I could get of at her same stop and it was right near there, she would show me.

After shuffling through my wallet, I found the sheet of paper that Anita (the assistant/secretary at the school) had given me with the bus number, stop, and address of the chorale rehearsal space. I showed it to the woman, and then she again conversed with the driver. They decided and explained to me that I could get off at the same stop that I was going to with the woman and then pick up another bus. The woman escorted me to the other side of the street and restated to me which stop it was I needed to get off at. I got on that bus (Bus 4 to Cap Sud) and confirmed the stop was in fact on the line that the bus went. It was and he confirmed when we got to the stop that it was the one I needed. But then I got to that stop, and the school/annex was supposed to be right down the road. Well, I guess I went the wrong way down the road. I ended up the next bus stop over, where after talking to 2 people, the 2nd person flagged down a bus for me, to ask the driver where the road was that I was looking for. He told me to wait across the street and pick up a third bus (Bus 1, Le Pontet Le Lac), which was the one I was supposed to originally take in the first place. Luckily a) I could keep using the same ticket because you can use it unlimited times within an hour time span b) I had my umbrella, raincoat, and rain boots, because it continued to rain. I waited for about 10 minutes for the next bus (Bus 1) and confirmed again when getting on the bus. It was two stops down. So 50 minutes after leaving Place Pie (which normally takes no more than 15 minutes), I arrived about 15 minutes late to rehearsal.

Rehearsal went fine. We did all this choreography stuff that I didn't know - I guess some of it they had practiced while I was away traveling during break, but I don't really know. Anyway, I'll have to practice a little to remember it, because it's complicated to try to do choreography and sing at the same time. At least tonight, I didn't have the brain capacity to do so.

Came home, had dinner (artichoke, lamb, sausage, and lentils), then watched the end of a movie with Claudie. It was a movie about the 1950s after the war. There were all your necessary characters - foreigners, Jews, a bourgeoisie family, a jazz singer, and a Communist. It is/was amusing as I just finished studying/reviewing about that for my History midterm.

Anyway, I hope the rain stops.

À demain.

Day 52: La fenêtre ouverte / The open window.

So it was gorgeous weather today, but I was hiding inside, studying for my two midterms that I have tomorrow. I had my Lit exam this morning and wish that my other exams were in the same fashion - very broad questions that allow for a variety of answers. Anyways, they won't, but it was nice to have that type of exam for at least one of my midterms!

The letter that Claudie has to write for me for the French government for my visa has to be hand written. The secretary informed me of this today. It didn't come up today with Claudie, so I will mention it to her tomorrow. Apparently the Institute sent the host families with email access an email with a model of the letter. Why she can't just print and sign this I don't know, but I was told she has to hand write it. I will chat with her in the morning.

So after spending the day studying in the Institute in my new hiding place (I'm not telling you where it is because then it wouldn't be very good for hiding!), I returned home to a locked door upstairs (unusual), an open window in my room, and a flyer for the upcoming dinner at the Institute. The locked door was because no one was in the house, the sign that Michel had left for Togo (he left at 8am this morning). The open window was Claudie airing out my room with fresh spring air. It was gorgeous. At school, I had been thinking about how nice it would be to open up my windows and enjoy some fresh air. It was like she read my mind. She returned home and told me I could close my window if it got cold, but I told her that it was nice out, so it was fine. Since I have been negligent in picture posting on my blog (a picture's worth a thousand words), I took a picture of my open window!

For dinner we had ham pizza - with a couple olives. I think about 90% of French pizzas have about 3 or 4 whole black olives just plopped on top of them. I don't know why, but they do. Anyway, in addition to the pizza we had spaghetti noodes, mixed with what Claudie called "Chinese noodles", ratatouille, walnuts, and chicken.

At dinner, I mentioned the flyer she had left on my desk. We had received an email from the Institute today reminding us about the upcoming group dinner on Thursday the 18th. Each student and host is invited, and everyone brings something. So I mentioned the flyer and Claudie explained that she thinks she has a rehearsal that night, but that she will check. However, she offered to make a dish for me to bring. I have been trying to make something with her/watch her make dinner/learn how to cook and I saw this my in! I said to her, are you going to make it all by yourself or can we make it together. She said, oh no, I can make it, unless you want to watch/learn. To which I said, "Bien sur"..."Of course!" So 'Yeah!!' for me.

Time to go to bed. I made myself a strict schedule to follow for the next 18 hours (aka until the end of my 2 exams tomorrow).

À demain!

Day 51: Les examens commencent demain./Exams start tomorrow.

Today was a little frustrating. I had my second visit for my visa - I had to go to the immigration/integration office for them to verify/qualify that I was legally in France (not like I haven't already been here for almost 2 months!). My friend and I wer the first students from our program to go. The women told us that one of the forms we had didn't suffice and that we would need a copy of the id card of our director because our director had attested to our housing/lodging, food, money, etc. Then the next girl to have an appointment returned from her appointment and the women had told her to tell us that she had changed her mind and wanted a bill from our host family and a copy of an id card of our host. Then a third person returned, and the woman had added that she also wanted a letter written by our hosts. Suffice it to say, this process has been quite frustrating and much more complicated than I feel necessary.

Classes went well today. We reviewed for exams.

After our appointments were over this morning, we tried to go to Les Halles (the market) but it is closed on Mondays. Who knew!?!? I thought everything was closed on Sundays. Apparently, Les Halles is the exception to that rule. I'm going to try to make it over there tomorrow before class - we'll see how that goes.

Michel leaves tomorrow for Togo at 8am and he will arrive there at 8pm (I don't know if that is Togo time or France time), but anyway, it definitely makes for a long day. He is returning the 23 of May, so he will be gone for 3 weeks.

The weather has been nice thus far...like spring. I hope it will keep up, but I don't know how that will go/if that will happen.

Have to get in a few minutes of studying before bed. Did you know the best time to study to store information in your long term memory is right before bed? Thank you, Tabor Strategies for Learning, for teaching me that.

À demain!