Well hello there!

Well, I suppose its time for another update.

I can’t believe how fast this is all going. I just realized it’s been two weeks already since I returned from Italy. How is that possible? These past two weeks have been crazy. The Thursday before last, my parents came into town for a few days, which was amazing. They are way too good to me. I don’t know what I did to deserve them, but I like it. We had four fabulous days together and I miss them a ton. I also have to admit that I’ve been in quite a funk since they left. It’ll pass. I’m too busy for it to not pass.

Class has been interesting; we’ve had quite a bit of it lately. Last Wednesday was Marketing day, and for the first time, I didn’t feel like dying just a little inside. I actually understood what was going on, contributed to group work and even initiated a little. I’m embarrassed to say that I may have enjoyed it just a little. I’ve been doing quite a bit with my Intercultural Research Project lately, helping middle schoolers/high schoolers with their English homework. That can be quite boring from time to time seeing as they don’t always have English work to do and I just sit there awkwardly while they work with other people on their math and history homework.

In other news, I mysteriously injured my foot last weekend and have been suffering from complications all week. My foot swelled to be twice its normal size, sandwiching together all of my toes and causing major sock indentations on my ankle. It was so big by the end of the week that I couldn’t even stuff it into a single shoe I have here, other than my hiking boots. As Kelly says, I’m rocking the “rustic-chic look” with my sweaters and clunky hiking boots. I’m too scared to go to a doctor, so I’m trying the good old ICE method… Ice, Compression and Elevation. As a result of ICE, I’m bored out of my mind. I’ve watched 4 movies in the last 24 hours and eaten more than my share of chocolate (literally; I ate some of Sarah’s and Kelly’s too).

Thursday was the unveiling of 2006’s Beaujolais nouveau, so M. and Mme. Faure invited us over to their apartment for a tasting. I’m not gonna lie: it’s pretty bad, which is the general consensus amongst French people. Despite the fact that nobody likes how it tastes, in recent years the Beaujolais nouveau has become a commercial holiday in France and everybody drinks the stuff anyway. M. Faure I think just wanted us to drink with him. He always does this to us because he thinks we speak so much better when we drink (which we do). It was a fun evening. I like the Faures.

Sometime last week I had an encounter that I think is worth sharing. Actually, I had two encounters which are worth sharing. The first one was slightly terrifying. Sarah and I were walking up towards the cathedral, doing some shopping when we ran across a group of 5-6 guys in their 40’s wearing leather jackets, cut-off shorts, tennis shoes, and ponytails with skull caps. To my surprise, I kind of accidentally only somewhat discretely blurted out in English (?? Where did I learn to write like that?) “Are those guys FRENCH?” to which they turned around and were like “HEY, are you girls AMERICAN?” Shit. Turns out they were two heavy metal bands from the U.S. touring Europe, making a pit stop in Cl-Fd for the bus drivers on their way from Spain to Germany. They said the names of their bands but I wasn’t listening because a) I didn’t care and I don’t like heavy metal so I wouldn’t have known anyway, and b) I was trying to figure out an escape route. At any rate, you could tell that they thought they were pretty important stuff. God they were so obnoxious. They were making such a scene and they wanted to keep talking when Sarah and I wanted nothing more than to run in the opposite direction, especially when they asked what we were doing that night. It was terrifying, and they were such idiots. “Yeah, this is my 15^th time touring Europe. Every European city is the same,” one of the guys said while we were standing in front of the cathedral. I so badly wanted to say to him “Oh yeah? And did you know this cathedral is black because it was built from volcanic rock? What an idiot.

My other incident worth mentioning happened on Thursday. I was in the middle of trying to print something out in a giant hurry before class when I heard the most special pick up line ever. I busted open the doors to the library and headed straight to the back of the room, where the printer is. On my way to the printer, I was caught off guard by a French student who had been sitting at a computer in the front of the room. He was turned around in his chair, looking at me as I charged by in a hurry. Suddenly, he grabbed his eyes and said slowly, in broken English, “My eyes hurt to see such beautiful girl.” What the hell?! I gave him a very confused look and when I finally got to the printer, what he had said finally registered and I burst out laughing. As far as lines go, that one is definitely up there. It was too hilarious. Once again, what an idiot.

That’s all for now! Love and miss you all!