finally an update, and a long one at that.

I can't believe that I've been here three weeks already. For the most part it has been going pretty well, and today we had our last class for the month of June! I'm looking forward to the 10 day vacation now.

I haven't updated at all this week because I've been busy with homework and running around doing different things. By the time I get home every day and am finished with dinner (around 9pm) I have had homework to do or have been too tired to want to type a lot.

Speaking of dinner, I don't know what happened with Huguette's cooking. For the past week and a half, all we have been eating is salmon or quail. Six nights of salmon, and 3 nights of quail, to be exact. It's becoming an issue, haha. I love salmon, and am by no means a picky eater, but when I am served salmon every single night and notice it getting scalier and scalier every night, I'm getting very sick of it..the quail at first was good, but I believe she had a whole quail stored somewhere in the kitchen and that is why we were served quail for 3 nights. Blech. Then I read online that salmon is unhealthy to eat in mass amounts because of the mercury content. Uh oh! Maybe I have mercury poisoning.

I'm sure I don't, but my stomach has been slightly upset these past 3 or so nights. I think Huguette can hear it rumbling from downstairs. Mom, when I come home, can you please not cook me salmon? Haha. I don't think I could handle it.

I am a little sad that my class for the month of June is ended. Our professor (Mssr. Oliviér Dufresne) was very interesting, very intelligent, and very passionate during lecture. I learned a lot about French virtues, and we made interesting comparisons during class between French and American society.

One of the topics that I found notably interesting was our discussion on family values in both countries. A survey was taken in France asking people if they considered certain living arrangements to constitute a family (as reported in the following chart)

Living arrangement /Percentage of French surveyed that considered it to be a family

Couple with children /95% (considered that to equate a family)

Grandparents who were rasing grandchildren /91%

Single parent with children/ 90%

Brother/Sisters living together/ 71%

Couple married with NO children /68%

Homosexual couple/ 40%

Friends living together /34%

I couldn't help but find this discussion really interesting in comparison to the values that Americans have towards these situations. The mentalities are very alike up to the point of brothers/sisters living together through friends living together. While France is much more accepting of a homosexual couple living together, they remain much more traditionally set in their idea of what a "true" family is. Many more Americans consider siblings living together to be a family, as well as couples with out children and especially friends living together (the French apparently, from what I've now come to understand, don't put as high of a regard towards friendship as Americans do.)

Another topic that I found interesting was the freedom of the press in France. I actually gave my exposé on the topic (the 20 minute speech I had to give this past Tuesday.) France, while being socialist and stereotyped as having the governments hands dipped in many sectors of their media/press, is in actuality a more "free" press in the world than the US. Every year the organization Reporters Without Borders compiles a list of countries' press around the world, and creates a list from the most "free" to the most controlled based on several factors, and in the past 5 years the USA has fallen from 23rd place to 48th place! France on the other hand, is today in the 31st place. Just some food for thought.

Tuesday I gave my exposé and Oliviér told me that I did a great job and presented an interesting topic (of course, what speaks more to the spirit of a Frenchman other than discussions of battles for freedom.) For lunch on Tuesday, Matt and Jen and I were feeling a little homesick for some American food so we caved and went to Pizza Hut. Haha. I'm happy to report that the pizza tasted nearly the same as pizza in America, unlike other kinds of food that France tries to imitate...among these salsa...I have been to three different "Mexican" themed places and NONE of them know how to make salsa. I'm going through withdrawals!

On our way walking over to Pizza Hut, I saw my first French strike! The first of many, of course. The strikers were walking down the big boulevard Rue National with signs and posters protesting capitalism. Oops, not a good strike to run in to right as I'm heading over to Pizza Hut. A reporter stopped me and Jen to ask for an interview, but I quickly declined saying that I was busy researching globalization and thus excused myself to order some pizza. We sat on the banks of the Loire, and had an American feast.

Tuesday night was VERY entertaining. Matt's host mom is friends with a man who organizes cultural exchanges among students of different nationalities with French rural students. So, Tuesday night I was invited along with Matt and my roommate Melanie to go with this man about a half an hour drive outside of Tours into the very, very rural, country outside of the Loire region, to visit a collège and expose French country kids to some different culture, namely American. Collège, in France, is the second track that a student can choose to pursue instead of going to a more traditional highschool followed by a university. Collège is more of an apprenticeship program. This particular collège had no more than 25 students who were study animal science to go on and work on the farms in the area.

At first, I had visions of students in overalls milking cows and chewing grass, but au contraire, the students were very emo and a few very awkward and pre-pubescent. I felt like I had stepped back into my middle school and early highschool days. They ranged in age from 16-19. The collège was the smallest little school building that I have every seen, with only one classroom, one cafeteria, and two different rooms where they kept random animals to study and take care of (including several lizards, a ferret, two rats, and a few fish tanks with the kind of fish that you would see kept at Meijers.) The only other building on the "campus" (if you can call it that) was the dormitory, which had a boy and a girl's wing, with about 5 rooms each. The dorms were fairly large and had 4 beds in each room.

We ate dinner in the cafeteria with the students, split up at 3 tables so that they had a chance to talk to us. I thought I would get a break by eating out for the night but lo and behold, dinner that night in the cafeteria was SALMON. I just can't get away from it.

When we first walked in, I felt like we were some kind of special spectacle, but after awhile, things became less awkward and I just enjoyed my time talking to them and answering random questions about life in America.

"Where do you live?"
"Michigan. "
"Where is Michigan? "
"It looks like a mitten. "
"Ohhh. Do you know any celebrities? Do you know Brad Pitt?"
"No. I live in Michigan."
"Isn't that close to LA?"
"No..."
"Have you ever been to Texas?"
"No one likes Texas or the South in America."
"Really?"
"Yes."

Hahaha. The questions went on and on. Do I watch Sex and the City? Do I have sex in the city? How do people dress in the States? What kind of movies, music, tv do I like? What am I studying? Have I ever met Hannah Montana? While they all had been taking English since grade school, I could definitely speak French much much much much much better than they could speak English.

Then came the topic of music:
me: "What kind of music do you like?"
them: "Rock!!! I love Nirvana." (most of them said this...some even mentioned ACDC)
"You know that no one has been listening to grunge rock in the states since the early 90s, right?"
They looked at me with wide open eyes and looks of surprise.
"Oh yeah, and Kurt Cobain is dead."
The looks of surprise turned into shock, and some mouths dropped open.

Ohhhhh silly french students. After dinner they took us on a tour of their school, and 5 minutes in, we were done with the tour and stopped in the animal rooms. The English teacher (a young french guy around 27yrs old) could actually not speak English that well, and he kept insisting that I hold on to every single lizard that they had, like I had never seen lizards before in the States. And each time I held a lizard, the man who organized the cultural exchange would hurriedly take a picture of me, the lizard in my hand, and whichever of the French students who happened to jump into the picture at the time.

Here is a picture of our group from the night: if you click on the image it will show up larger.


So, Tuesday was an eventful day.

On Wednesday I tested my French skills further by braving a visit to the hair salon because I really needed a hair cut. I sat with my host mom for about a half an hour before I left, miming to her what I wanted (which was really only bangs) and she in turn gave me a little vocab lesson. She also warned me that all French salons would keep offering me special products and treatments for my hair, but to refuse them because it would only keep adding and adding onto my bill and give me quite the shock when all would be said and done. I left my house, repeating to myself the new vocab I had learned, and making myself remember to insist to the hair dresser, "Just a shampoo and trim! Just bangs!" It turned out really well! She cut my bangs exactly how I wanted them, and I left very relieved and feeling accomplished, with newly styled hair.

Yesterday (Thursday), we didn't have class but instead an excursion to a little boulangerie (a baker's, just bread though) that has been in Tours since the early 1900s. They showed us how they make the bread, showed us the old oven they had for the bread which dated from the 1930s, and different instruments they use. After the little presentation, we were treated with a delicious breakfast of bread! mmmmmm. I had so many delicious kinds of bread. Croissants, pain au chocolat, pain du framboises, sour dough bread, normal bread, wheat bread, with a really sweet date jam, and for drinks, I had freshly made apple juice and the best hot chocolate ever. It was a little piece of heaven.

The rest of Thursday was spend writing a seven page paper (in french, of course). I finally finished this morning at 3am, then crashed and went to bed for a few hours before class. Now I am finished with the first part of the semester here in France, and like I said in the beginning of this entry, am looking forward to having 10 days off. This weekend I will be in Tours, but on Monday I am taking the train back to Paris to meet with Lauren and Christian, and then we are going to Provence on the 26th. I'm probably going to stay in Provence after they leave on the 29th, and have a relaxing rest of my vacation, instead of trying run around Europe. I still have a bunch of extra work to do anyway for my Professors to fill for the independent study I'm taking, so it will be a good chance to nearly finish all the extra work before a new set of classes begin.

untitled

I promise I will update soon about this past week's shenanigans. But right now I am busy crunching out a 7 page paper on the rise of feminism in France...followed by a 5 page paper on a topic I haven't chosen yet. Good luck to me!

"there are places i remember, all my life"

Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. Everywhere you turn around there is a breath-taking monument.

We left by the TGV train at 2pm on Friday, and went from the train station to our hotel which was located in the east of the city. Not only was it Friday the 13th, but there a woman had her black cat with her on the train! So ironic. It was a nice little hotel. Everything is so tiny in France, from the cup of coffee that you pay 3 euros for to the hotel room you stay in. But at least my height is coming in use here. At any rate, it was a clean hotel, and we ended up paying a lot less staying in the hotel than we would have payed to stay in a hostel.

Unfortunately, Friday was a bit of a tense day. It all began when we arrived at the train station in Paris. Jen and I took the lead and while we all stood in line to buy a little book of metro tickets, we looked at the map of the metro, and figured out what route we needed to take to get to the hotel. It wasn't difficult to figure out, and she and I have both already been on the metro so we had a little bit of knowledge to stand on. Suddenly I look over at Lindsey, and she is standing in her tracks with her mouth agape, looking like she is ready to kill. Uh oh. Apparently Andrew, who was invited along to come to Paris with us by Gary, had turned to Pat and said, "Um, don't you think we should double check where we need to go? Everyone knows girls can't read maps."

This can of course be brushed off at first as just a funny sarcastic joke, but when Lindsey turned to him and said, "What did you say?" he replied back, "What, it's true." He was being dead serious! I couldn't believe it! I looked at him, and I could just feel my hair standing on end, I was so angry and offended. "You don't think any girl can read a map?" I asked him.

His face was turning red very quickly as if he suddenly felt impending doom from us three girls looking at him in disgust, but he still answered back, "What? Generally that's just how it is. They just can't read maps and get directions." He was still trying to defend himself!! Matt knew that I was pissed off, and just said something under the lines of, whoa girl calm down we don't need carnage in the metro, so that we could just keep moving and get our line to take us to the hotel.

Of course we arrived just fine...girl's directions and all.

After getting cleaned up a little bit, we went to the Latin Quarter and walked around. The metro is such a funny experience. First of all, you have to be sure to look really pissed off and moody, and in no way should you talk to anyone else who is riding it. At one of the stops a hobo got on with his guitar and started playing Bob Dylan, but his English accent was so bad at first that I couldn't tell what he was playing. Interestingly enough, Matt told me that he read an article this past semester about the musicians that play at the metros and a good majority of them are in fact French government employees. Apparently the government has them do that to encourage musicians and artists in the city to keep up with France's bohemian legacy. I don't know how well it's working to be honest, haha. I definitely do not come to France to listen to French music. I've been hearing a lot of French rap artists trying to mimic 8 mile angst, and it just isn't working.

I saw this sign by le Palais de Justice in the Latin Quarter, and I could not for the life of me figure out what it was forbidding. Kidnapping? Holding hands? I'll have to ask Thao, hahah. Matt and I trying to look French and moody in front of Notre Dame. We sat by the cathedral for an hour or so, soaking in all the sculptures, gargoyles, and ornate carvings. The cathedral, when first built hundreds of years ago, was actually all golden--all the the stones were painted with a metallic gold, red, royal blue, etc, paints. But with time and weathering, it's now all gray, with only the stained glass windows to testify to its former dazzling glory. It is still of course, very beautiful.
break dancers in front of Notre Dame.

Then we were all getting hungry so we went to a cafe and had some dinner. I ordered a croque madame--a sort of french grilled cheese sandwhich with ham and a cooked egg on top. Anyone who comes to France must order a Croque Monsieur, or croque madame (the madame has the egg on top.) They are delicious! And made with delicious French cheese. Expensive, but, "Welcome to Paaaaris" as Thao always tells us in his French accent whenever we complain about how poor we are here.

We walked around some more after dinner and ended up going back to where our hotel neighborhood to go to a bar. Disaster! It was a horrible night. Welcome to Paaaaris. Our first mistake was going to a little bar where everyone was a regular. Second mistake was that some people were being too loud. Third mistake was that when Matt and Pat and I ordered our beers, Gary just asked for water. Fourth mistake was that when our waitress came back with our beers, Gary then proceeded to order a pint. She looked at him and just told him no. I didn't know whether to crack up laughing at that point or lay on the ground and expose my belly in submission to the waitress. "Welcome to Paaaris" kept running through my mind. Fifth mistake was that Jen and Lindsey ordered monaco's (white beer with grenadine) and then the bar tender got very snobby and Parisian and claimed "We are in Paris" meaning that they must call it some sort of other name there. Ack! It was a cultural warfare. In short, it was a long day, we were getting frustrated with the Parisians and with each other, so we finished up and just left the cafe. Thankfully, I didn't personally get any heat from the waitress or bar tender that night.

Saturday: a much better day in a fabulous city. Lindsey, Jen and I decided to venture out on our own in the morning, and let the guys do what they wanted to do. We went to this not very well-known purse store near the Champs Elysée that sells designer purse for 20% off. So of course I bought a really adorable Longchamp purse and feel even more frenchie now. Then we walked around the fashion district and saw all of the designer stores: Chanel, Dior, etc. We got a little turned around trying to head for the Champs Elysée, and suddenly there were more and more policemen, French army men..there were at least five of them every 50ft. It was scary. Then the streets started getting blocked off ...but it turns out that we were heading closer and closer to the American Embassy and ironically yours truly was in Paris that day--President George W. Bush. Whoopity-do. So, we back tracked and spent the rest of the morning shopping. It was fun. We ended at the Arc de Triomphe and met up with the guys and went to Montmartre.
I finally saw Moulin Rouge! Right in the heart of the red light district. Quite the interesting boulevard, to say the least.

From there we went to see le Sacre Couer, still breathtaking, especially being able to see the Paris skyline from such a high hill.
View from just below le Sacre Couer. There was a parade that day, and so it was really crowded.

Saturday night was definitely the high light of my weekend :) I got to go see the Eiffel Tower again! I don't think I will ever grow tired of seeing it. It's enormous, impressive, beautiful..really the epitamy of Paris and France in my eyes.
Walking up to the base of the tower.
Lindsey was pretty pumped to see it for the first time, hahahah.

We went to the second floor of the tower (the top floor was closed off for the night because of a president's dinner....ARGH. Bush is just ruining my time in France too.) But of course..the view is amazing regardless how high up you are. The first picture in this entry is of me on the second floor of the tower.

So now I'm back in Tours and going to get back to the school routine. I've got two papers to write, and a 20minute speech on Tuesday. Ohhh well. :) who else can say that they took a weekend vacation to Paris? And plus, I get to go back next Monday to meet up with Lauren and Christian! I can't wait.

almost time for bed

The rest of the week since Tuesday evening has been pretty normal. I'm starting to fall into a routine of going to class from 10-12, then sitting at a cafe for the afternoon, then coming back home and doing some hw, then dinner, then sometimes going out or sometimes attempting to not procrastinate.

More dinner table news: yesterday I put my old hostess skills into play and beat Jin Na and Yuka to clearing the table. They both looked around helplessly and unsure of what to do, but I just thought, screw this! I'm not going to continue to look lazy, like I don't help out!

Wednesday we had another excursion to Azay-le-Rideau and Villandry. The gardens are renown at Villandry and I was not disappointed. Unfortunately I forgot my camera (ugh!) but everyone else took lots of pictures so I'm just going to steal some of them.

I've always thought that I preferred English gardens over French gardens, but seeing the geometric methods of it all in person was really amazing. And, on top of that, I learned that there are only 10 gardeners that keep up the whole place! That's so insane.
The hedgerow mazes.
A very epic picture, if I do say so myself.
View from way up top on a hill.

After finally having a few hot days this week, it rained again today and instantly the temperature dropped to be really chilly. I think I can hear it raining outside some more.

This weekend is the most exciting, though! A little group and I are going to Paris for the weekend! We are taking the TGV (the high speed train) right after class tomorrow, and we will be there until Sunday around noon. I can't wait. We've so far planned to see the Eiffel Tower, of course, Le Musé Des Beaux Arts where all the impressionist paintings are, and Montmartre.

So, I won't be updating this until Monday night since I'm not bringing my computer with me. By the way, I'm still experiencing problems with my cellphone receiving international calls >( I think I'm going to have to now call the company itself and deal straight with them. It's really odd, only one other girl is having problems with her phone.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! À plus tard...

We all knew it was going to happen. I've officially decided that I don't want to leave France. Oh là là. The country is so beautiful, and even though the people are a pain in the butt sometimes, it's nearly worth it. I know it's not actually going to happen, but the lifestyle here really is great.

So every night at dinner there is a certain routine of clearing off the table. Before dessert is served, we all pile up our plates and then help Huguette bring everything to the kitchen. However, for some reason that I do not know, Yuka and Jin Na (the japanese and korean girls) quickly scoop up everything before me, Gabby, Melanie, or Robin can so it makes it look like we aren't helping out. I don't get it. Haha. It's really amusing. I have to fight to grab an empty bottle of water so that I have a least something to bring into the kitchen.

Monday was just class, and then I tried my hardest to do some homework, but the weather has finally warmed up so I just went to a cafe with some people relaxed. I didn't do much after dinner either, just some research for my presentation.

Today we went to Vouvray to tour the caves and then do a little wine sampling. The countryside was gorgeous! It made me really want to just rent a house in the countryside for a summer vacation and go with friends and relax in the beautiful weather, surrounded by vineyards galore. Ahhhh. We took a very long walk opposite of the vineyard to have a picnic before we went to the caves, and then we walked back. I didn't realize this, but Vouvray wines are essentially champagne, only are not allowed to be called that because it does not come from the Champagne region in France. Wines can be the same thing but must have different names depending on what region of France they are from. So, Vouvray wines are also sparkling wine. We sampled a white, red, and blush wine. People went CRAZY in the shop after tasting the wine. I saw some students walking out of there with 4 bottles of wine. Oh là!! But I'm not a big fan of sparkling wines so I didn't buy any.

pretty little country houses on our walk to picnicpart of the enormous vineyard

It was really beautiful. It kind of reminded me of the move "A Walk in the Clouds." I wanted to run around in some grapes and mash them up, haha.

I can't believe I only have a week and a half left of my first session of school here :/ so on that note, I'm going to go read and research.

my secret lunch place

I saw this billboard when I was exploring down a random street and it made me laugh. Do you speak Wall Street English? bahaha.

Let's see...where have I left off..

Friday night I had an excellent night of rest. I woke up feeling refreshed and went to Volume 7 with Lindsey and Jen for lunch. It's become our new secret lunch cafe (although now a bunch of other people have found out about it and so I'm not sure how secret it is anymore.) It's a very tiny cafe off of Place Plume and has delicious, inexpensive sandwiches, and the owners are so nice. A man named Frank owns it with his wife, and they live above the cafe. They have a little girl, and another one on the way (and can I mention how CUTE it is when little kids speak french?). While I like exploring the city and finding new cafes, I think it's better to become a regular in France because then you can sit and chat with the owners during your lunch or have a coffee with them, and develop more of a relationship with people who live here.

The really funny part about this cafe is the fact that when we order our sandwiches, Frank says, "Ah bon. Let me go get some bread." And he literally walks out of the cafe and goes to the little market nearby to buy our baguettes for our sandwiches. And if while he is gone someone wants to pay, another regular at the cafe will just get up and ring the person up. No questions asked. The simplicity and good-natured vibes in the place are great. I wish we had more small establishments like that in Brighton, instead of the rush and go restaurant scene.

We also went back to hang out there last night and I sat at the bar talking with Frank about music since he plays really cool 60s and 70s hits. I asked him if he had heard of Simon and Garfunkel and he said yes, but he doesn't have any cds. So I'm going to make a cd of some good music and give it to him to play in the cafe.

By the way, the Maroon 5 concert was good. Jen is obsessed with them so she was definitely out of control and we kept pushing our way up closer and closer to the stage until we were practically 3 rows away from the stage. Very cool. Before Maroon 5 went on, a popular French techno-ish group played. Hahah, it was so funny. A lot of the songs were in English and we were listening to the lyrics thinking, "What? Do they know what they are singing?" But it was a cool experience. We met a couple girls at the concert and hung out at Place Plume afterwards with others.
Very big crowd of frenchies.
hahahahaha. A crazy guy dancing to Maroon 5 who was REALLY into the music. I just had to add this in.
We were so close to the stage!


Today I ventured to another part of the city and sat in a beautiful garden and did some reading. I felt like I went back in time or something though, like suddenly I was in 1920s. Haha. There was a symphony band playing music in the gazebo in the middle, and a group of jugglers practicing in one area. I felt like there should have been a good 'ol ball game going on in one corner of the garden. Lots of people were out promenading, with kids, lovers, and dogs, some were biking, and one kid rolled out of the bushes suddenly where we were sitting and I almost peed my pants laughing so hard, it was so random. I mean, there was just suddenly a kid catapulted out with a burst through the leaves and branches. Why, I do not know. OH, and the orchestra was playing all these old American war marches, as well as music from the Godfather movies. HAHAHA. The French are so crazy. Needless to say, I was really distracted from my reading and homework between listening to the stumbling orchestra play Godfather music, kids exploding out of bushes, and French lovers getting crazy on benches.

The food is still really delicious. Today I had some french fries though with Lindsey at this little dive of a cafe, and ooh did the grease hurt my stomach. Haha. I'm going to have to wean my appetite back to normal before I eat Red Robin at home again.

une soirée très calme en fin

Today has been nice and low-key. I had class from 10am-noon, then went to a cafe for lunch with a couple people, and then bought myself a pair of French skinny blue jeans! I feel so chic.

Then I went back to the Institut and did online things. I have to do some research for one of my portfolios, and I think for one of them I'm going to focus on Film Noir (black and white films.) There will be plenty to talk about, and it will be fun to learn about the directors and different films. Maybe I can go rent one from a video store and watch it here since Huguette has a dvd player. I also sent some emails to people and chatted with Matt for a bit, which was nice.

I'm off now to Lindsey's house (she lives very close) and we're going to watch some French TV and relax. Tomorrow there is an optional excursion to Versailles, but I think that I would like to go back and visit there with Lauren and Christian, instead of a big group. That way, we can do our own thing and explore on our own.

Tomorrow I'm going to go sit by the Loire in the morning and try and finish one of my books, and I also think I might tour the Cathedral some more that I live by. You can pay a little sum of money and be able to go to the top of the Cathedral and see the whole city and the country surrounding :)

i have no sense of time

I really have no sense of time anymore. Matt said that he heard it takes one day to adjust for each hour of time difference. I'm still jet-lagged! It's awful. I haven't even been here a full week, but yet it feels like I have been here forever...i'm floating around in some time continuum called France..

Plus, everything is so overwhelming right now and there is SO much going on that I'm experiencing a mental overload all the time between speaking in French, listening to French, reading it everywhere, switching back to English when people on my group start talking, jet-lag, walking miles everyday, cringing at how expensive things cost, etc etc. Phewwww. I haven't been able to take naps yet either in the afternoon because of the jet lag. So I end up just being really tired during class in the morning :/

Tuesday night we did end up finding our way back to the irish cafe and hung out again. I met the cutest french girl named Alice. She was one of the girlfriends of the guys that come out with us every night. She was so fun! Of course, I make a cool friend and then it turns out that she was leaving on Wednesday to go back to Lyon. Her family lives there, and she is also starting med school. Damn. It would have been fun if she lived in Tours. We exchanged cellphone numbers at any rate, and since she has texted me a few times. Anyway, while we were talking, she told me that the French really like tequila! How did I never know about this?! So then we went over to a tequila cafe/bar. It was the coolest bar! It was playing great American music. The Beatles, the Eagles, some Elvis, just random old music, but really entertaining.
We did tequila shots like the ones that we did on the cruise in Cozumel. Oh là là.

Wednesday we had class in the morning again. For the month of June, I have class mon-fri from 10am-12pm. It doesn't seem like much, but I have so much other stuff to do outside of the class that it's ridiculous. After class we went to le chateau d'Amboise, and to Leonardo De Vinci's house. It was pretty cool. The chateau was only one of the first renaissance ones built, so to be honest, it wasn't that extravagant. And likewise, we were a part of this huge tour group and that was annoying. Once again the camera girls made fools of themselves. I don't get it. In De Vinci's house, there were signs everywhere saying that you couldn't take pictures inside. The flash ruins paintings, and other relics of sorts that are around the house. Did they pay attention to it? No. I saw them take pictures in the tiny chapel in his house, and I told them that cameras weren't allowed and they didn't listen to me...it was embarrassing once again. I'm surprised we didn't get yelled at. Les americans! But we had some time to explore the city a little bit. We went to a patisserie and bought some chocolate. I had this delicious marzipan candy...mmmm.
This is Henry II's bedroom in the castle.

Funny story about De Vinci's house, though. In one of the rooms there was a girl working, dressed in the clothes of the period like you would see at Greenfield Village, and she was talking to a group of little kids. As we were passing by, on the back of one of the kid's tshirts read, in English, "I'm Hungry for Tourists". HAHAHAH. Oh my god. Does his mom realize what that says?! If it wasn't so funny, I might have been a little frightened. Oh Frenchies.



Speaking of French cuisine, I'm LOVIN it! Dinners have been very yummy. Last night we ate a green bean salad..theres no name for it in english. But it had eggs, onion, garlic, and some light kind of dressing on it. There was also a tomato dish, which was just sliced tomatos in a vinagrette with parsley..mmm. Then there is a whole course devoted to cheese. She brings out a large plate of an assortment of cheese, and we eat it with bread and salad. My favorite so far has been coeur de chèvre. Its chèvre cut into the shape of a heart and has spices all around the outside. For dinner a couple days ago she made smoked salmon, and that was delicious too. The meals are really light, but I always end up really full at the end and satisfied. This must be what it's like to eat healthy, hahaha.

Last night I went out to get a coffee at a cafe and came back home early. But I still couldn't really fall asleep early. bleh. Maroon 5 is playing here tonight and everyone is going. Hahaha, I find it really random that they are in Tours, playing a free concert.

This is the cathedral of Tours that I wake up to every day. It's so incredible.

Oh ps. I found a cafe here called "Mr. Cool's." bahahaha.

allo

I just layed down and tried taking a nap just now, (around 5pm my time) but the jet lag is still keeping me from sleeping, even though I am very tired.

So, to finish up my day on Sunday...that night, I decided to go out with some friends. We met at Place Plumereau, which is a little plaza that a lot of students and young people go to. There are several bars and cafes, and some ethnic food, too.

Wow. What a crazy night.
Haha.

Our professor, Thao, who is in his late twenties, came out with us. We went to an Irish pub and at first just ordered a round of beer. The usual group of people that I hang out with are Jen, Lindsey, Matt, Gary, and give or take a few other students on the trip who want to tag along. I invited Melanie (just a reminder, the NY young student living with me too) and she tagged along. I figured she would want to go out and drink since she talks about it all the time really obnoxiously, haha. But little did I know that us MSU students would show her up. Anyway, they never have any crappy beer on tap. I really wish I could remember the name of the first beer I had. But after the first round, and after getting to know our waiter Fan Fan (pronounce Fohn Fohn with a nasaly "o") he told us that they had what they call a Giraffe. Hahahaha. The giraffe is a long tube of beer that holds 2.5 liters, and is cheaper in the end rather than buying a lot of beers. It was 25euros ($35 about.)

At that point, our group was separated in two tables since many of the students had come to hang out. At the other table sat a girl named Caitlin, and she actually has a host brother who is 18 or 19 I think so he brought a few of his friends to come hang out. They ended up pulling their chairs over to our table as soon as Fan Fan brought out the giraffe to hang out with the less-calm group of Americans..haha.
This is the fun group with our second giraffe (this giraffe had 3.5 liters.) From the left, Lindsey, Remi, Me, Abdèl, Jen, Clémont, and Nikki. Nikki is actually Lindsey's roommate, she is with a group from Alabama. The French boys were so excited to hang out with the American ladies. Haha. Apparently, they like American accents. And really, no french youngin's party like college kids do in America, so it's always so exciting for them. They sat with us and listened to tales of keggers, keg stands, and drinking like fish just to get drunk all the while with huge grins on their faces, like little boys on christmas morning looking at all the presents santa has left. Oh là là.

Thao and me.
This was the first giraffe, and Fan Fan!

It was a very educational night for us in speaking French. Haha. And now I have some French friends!

Thao bought us kebabes when the bar closed, and we all walked each other home later after sitting by the cathedral and eating them. They aren't like american kebabes, its more like a sub with greasy Morocco style meat and cheese and sauce served with french fries.

Monday was our orientation. We are separated into 2 groups for the first month of classes, and while we only have one class for 2 or 3 hours of the day, I'm in the more advanced group and we have more work to do :( bummer. I actually have a lot of homework and school work to do while I'm here, too. I have to read 2 books, write papers about them, do 2 portfolios, and do a 20 min presentation in the class, all before June 21st. Then I have placement tests, and for the month of July we are separated by levels and have classes based on that.

After class I wandered around all afternoon with Lindsey and Jen and bought a cellphone. I was soo tired, and just spent the night in even though I didn't end up going to bed early like I had wanted to :/

Today was the first day of class, nothing too crazy. Then another whole afternoon of nothing. Jen and Lindsey and I went shopping though and I bought some cute French clothes! AND A CARDIGAN. I'm going to wear it tomorrow, it's so cute. Thao came out with us and so did Matt for lunch, and he told us how they went to the pub again last night, but with other students, and Fan Fan kept asking him where the fun girls were :) haha. We are apparently more interesting or entertaining or something.

And on that note, I have dinner in an hour, and then we are going back for a little bit tonight to hang out at Fan Fan's bar, nothing too crazy though. Classes haven't really gotten started yet so we have nothing else to do. Tomorrow we have our first excursion to Amboise, one of the castles around here. Should be really beautiful!

oh là là

Now that I am feeling better (still tired...but only because now i don't want to sleep at all because there are so many things i want to explore) I am having an EXCELLENT time in Tours.

One thing that has surprised me is my ability to speak French. Of course I knew that I could speak French well, but it wasn't until now that I do my everyday everything in French and socialize with French people that I have realized that I've grasped the language. I don't have any problem speaking with people; what I am working on now is becoming more comfortable speaking it faster and more fluidly, instead of pausing often to think for a second on what i want to say. And as it has been only my 3rd day here, I'm really happy with the level that I'm starting out at. By the end of today, and at dinner too, I was getting really tired so I was having some problems. But I know it's just because I'm tired. I'm barely coherent in English as well. But at any rate...it's really exciting to finally be fluent in French!

Yesterday was quite the interesting day. I woke up around eleven and had a little bit of breakfast. Breakfast every morning consists of du pain avec nutela, fromage, le beurre, ou d'autres choses qu'on veut (bread with nutela, cheese, butter, or anything else that you might want), coffee or tea, and yogurt. It's a REALLY light breakfast. All of the meals are so much lighter here, but at the same time I walk away full and satisfied. Oh, and Huguette also serves the maple syrup that I gave her with breakfast because you can mix it with the yogurt and it tastes very yummy. It's not like Dannon yogurt, it's just plain natural chunky yogurt, but I like it, I like the tart taste.

Then I cleaned up a bit. I really like the older kind of French bathrooms. Bathrooms are getting more and more modern here, but thankfully I have an older one. It's what looks like half the size of a bathtub that we would be accustomed to, and the shower head is just a long cord, it doesn't stand up right or anything. But I really like it, because you just sit down in the shower, plug the drain after the water is warm enough, and get your body wet, then turn of the water and soap yourself and hair, then you turn the water back on and rinse off. I think it's really relaxing to be able to sit in the shower in the morning. Hahhaa, I guess I'm just lazy.

Here are pictures of the bathroom. As Huguette is a mosaic artist, she has all they amazing mosaic murals decorating the house in different parts. The ones in the bathroom are a bit bizarre..the antique looking porcelain victorian heads on the bodies creep me out, but over all, it's just an interesting piece of art. She also has a border in the bathroom with just a strip of Film Noir photos. Film Noir is just the genre name for old 1940s black and white movies.























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Then I decided to tag along with Melanie and walk around the city a bit. She was going to meet a couple of other girls (also american, also don't speak a lick of french.) We went to a cafe and had lunch. Afterwards, I ran into some girls from my group and decided to go with them. Big mistake. They were sooo embarrassing to be with. I realize that we are tourists no matter what and that it is a lot of their first times in France, let alone Europe, and that I'm no veteran myself in visiting France, but for the love of God. We passed by some random old wall that had roses growing on it, and yes we stopped to take pictures....but for 25 minutes. At least a 100 different poses. I just sat on the side line and cringed while I could hear all the French people sitting around near us crack up at the crazy Americans. One group was a a highschool-age group of three guys, smoking cigs, of course. And i heard them talking about us, saying, "Et voilà. Enfet, les americains n'ont jamais vu un mur." ("and there you have it. americans have never seen a wall.") Then they tried to secretly take pictures of us on their camera phones!!! I couldn't believe it. I now rest on some random French cellphone as an American that has never seen a wall. Ughh. It was embarrassing. No wonder everyone thinks Americans are crazy, they run around smiling like madmen with big cameras around their neck taking pictures of walls.

I know I am being cynical, but it really was embarrassing. I much prefer French encounters where they smile and talk to me about interesting things.

Thenn...we walked around some more. Wandered back home for dinner. When I came home, I met my other two roommates, Gabby and Robin. They are boyfriend and girlfriend...and very possibly the most adorable couple I have ever and will ever meet before in my life. I can't stand it. They are so damn cute. Gabby is this adorable guatamalen chica with an even more adorable chica accent and wild and crazy dark black curls, and Robin is an American from the east coast, who laughs all the time and gets really animated when he talks about certain aspects of the French culture that he loves. They are always giggling and in love and hugging and kissing (which isn't a big deal here...people practically have sex on park benchs. they take their pda's to a whole new level.) It makes me miss having a boyfriend around when I see how happy and in love they are :( but oh well. But, really, my roommates are so nice and fun to be with.

I think I need to wrap it up here for tonight. It's almost midnight and I thought I was going to go to bed early but I guess not. Matt had got online and we were talking and I stopped writing and now it's late...but one more quick thing. I ended up buying a cellphone today. It's pay as you go, and incoming calls are free for me though so if any of you call me I don't use any of my minutes, however you will be paying international prices. BUT, my friend Lindsey told me that you can buy a phone card at a Dollar Tree (for a dollar obviously) and it gives you 20 international minutes. Not bad! So, we could always talk on the phone that way. I don't want to post my phone number online in public, but if you want it ask and I will email it.


pps. Eamonn, you had mentioned the old section of Tours. Mais enfet, je habite là! Alors c'est ça que je vois quand je me reveille touts les matins.