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!