There is no future, there is no past, I live each moment as my last.

This is gonna be a long post: fair warning.
Friday after langue, Liana and I went into town to browse and shop. I got a cute dress, a tiny black skirt &some pink/nude flowery tights from H&M, and then we went to Kara(a shoe place) to look around, both of us left with new shoes, and I've already worn mine a few different times since then.
Okay. So Chantal and Dominique are in Paris for the weekend, and specifically told us to have people over n have some fun (just not all of catho!-Chantal =D ). So friday night, we had Leah, Gabby, and Nikki over. Liana made mac and cheese out of english cheddar (can't find american) and gouda, we also had salad, and for dessert we had crepes with nutella. We also managed to finish off a bottle of rose, a red wine, and a bottle of cidre.
After our delish dinner, we spent a lot of time swapping stories, and just girl-chatting. We ended the night by watching Eurotrip. We all crowded around Lianas laptop (american dvd wouldnt play in chantals dvd player), and although I thoroughly love that movie, I got the feeling my new friends don't have the same vulgar humor that I inherit. Gabby and Nikki went home soon after the movie, but Leah stayed the night due to the early morning Chateaux trip/her long walk home.
I went to bed after 2am, and my alarm went off at a bright and early 5:30. (ugh) I managed to slowly gather myself together and look presentable to leave. We packed food, and realized that we were running late for the trip. We ended up making it in time, but didn't get on M. Melin's bus(=/) or Gabby's (double =/) but it was overall okay. We did three Chateaux; starting with Azay-le-Rideau, then onto Chenonceau, and ending with Chambord.
The weather was of course bi-polar, and changed from cold and rainy, to windy n overcast, to blue skies beautiful, warm, and sunny....and back to raining and gross...all in a span of 8 hours.(pretty much how it is here)

Azay-le-Rideau was probably the smallest of the 3 and was very cute. It had a nice charming feel to it, and was set next to a huge pond with a walk around it. The whole thing was very picturesque, and I took over 130 pictures here, just snapping them at random, and letting creativity take over.
Chenonceau was next, and honestly I'm in love. It's built over a river, and is simply amazing. We had lunch sitting on a fountain, and soon we all were off to explore. Now this time, we got split up, and I explored the castle with Gabby, we finished the inside fairly quickly (compared to the others) and then took to taking picture after picture outside. We ended up (finally) getting some sun, and chilling out in front of the castle/river. This one made me miss home a lot. I grew up living not far from TONS of various locations with water, including my cute little boardwalk/saint clair river. Now, this is NOT one of the things I thought I would miss, but it really is. Being near water calms me and helps me feel less homesick, and for some reason I have had a brief moment of bliss on both excursions so far, and both happened while I was near water. I know that Angers has a river running through it, and all, but we rarely walk down by it, I plan to spend more time near it once the weather gets nicer.
After this, we had another fairly long bus ride to Chambord, and I had literally just fallen asleep when I heard our tourguide say "reveillez-vous".ugh. So I descended the bus feeling tired n sort of cranky. This chateau is huge, and let's just say the guy who built it must have been confiscating for something. ;) Okay, in all seriousness, this castle was the biggest, and had the most grandeur, it was where French Royalty lived and all that fun stuff, before Versailles. I also heard a rumor that it's the "beauty and the beast castle", which I believe, because it does have that feel to it. Hard to explain.
Chenonceau is privately ran, and was my favorite, It seemed the best kept up, and prettiest, and of course has the river appeal. I kept joking with the girls that I am going to get rich and buy it someday.(I wish.)
After we got back, we went to Mcdoner for some cheap quick food, and both the guys who work there know us and were joking with us. I'm starting to really like them, lol. We then went home and changed, drank a bottle of rose, and went to the bar 'Soft' on Bressigny, we got some beers, some sangria, and had a very nice time.
Today was low-key and chill, we spent the day being lazy, and eventually went to Leah's for Pizza and planning for spring break/ Paris(Versailles). Overall this weekend was pretty amazing. I got very little sleep, but I had a lot of fun which was much needed.


bad things:
-Bus rides are terrible, and it's almost impossible to sleep.
-There are students from a certain school that I won't name for offense reasons, but there's like 20+ of them, they flock together, are loud, only speak english, and treat everyone else like they are better than them (even tho they are not) Okay. so for some reason, they decided to sit on our bus and talk about stupid crap the whole time, and one of them said her bucket list isn't "anything stupid like skydiving, guys that's like totally lame, but I wanna like be like taken. like kidnapped, except I wanna like escape. how cool would that like be?" someone needs to teach these kids that "like" doesn't need to be in your vocabulary that much.
-my pink tights I just bought....are ripped at the heels already, which is dumb, I can still wear them with my boots but yeah. oh well. I want some black ones anyway.
-I still want queso/taco-bell.

good things:
-I might be seeing Versailles not this weekend,but next.
-Same with Paris.
-I'm less homesick than I've ever been.
-I love my new shoes, and walked thru rain puddles and they didn't get soaked.
-Andrea Gibson. shes a slam poet, and I am slowly becoming more and more obsessed with her. Here is a link to one of her more powerful things:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cEc3aQOP-o

Also, I've been trying to put photos on Photobucket, but it takes a LONG time to load, they will slowly, and eventually be on there, so those of you without facebook must be patient to view the rest of my amazing photos. =)  heres the link to that.  http://s1186.photobucket.com/albums/z375/amyallemon/

 Bonsoir a tous

Just another clutzy week in the life of Amy

So yesterday les filles and I found a mexican restaurant (sort of) and had lunch there. It was definately not real mexican food, or even mock taco bell, but it sufficed for now. We left an hour or so later feeling full, and slightly buzzed. (rose came with our formules..we weren't about to waste it)
After this we wandered into an English library, and maybe it was the rose buzz or just my curiosity, but I checked out Stephen King's IT....alas, Leah held onto it for me in her backpack and we parted ways without me getting it from her, so I will start my reading 2moro. We then wandered looking for (and asking random people) red(scottish) cows...but alas, we never found them. We haven't given up hope yet though.

Today was rather uneventful, just the normal routine of classes, delish pasta, and my amazingly gorgeous traduction prof practically running into me, and then telling me to "avoir un bon weekend amy!" swoon....

notable things:
-it was brought to my attention that a few of my friends have been using "faire exciter" to tell random people(including their host families) that they are excited about something. Well, I guess they missed that lesson in high school (and college) but "faire exciter" is how u say u are excited...sexually. The word you are looking for ladies is enthousiaste, but I have to admit it made my day knowing they had been telling their poor old host mothers about their arousal to be living in france. oh mon dieu.

-my little shower is very hard to shave in, and I'm starting to think that is why french people are rumored to not shave. alas, i do it anyway, and have cut myself a few times. Tonight tops them all though, because I literally had to sit in the shower for a while waiting for my nausea to pass so i could stand up and bandaid it up. only to find our shower room had no bandaids. so i limped to my room n took care of it the hard way. Lesson learned? not really, I will continue to shave my legs in my tiny shower, and I just hope next time I don't need stitches.

Allergies with a side of perspective

So I've been sneezing a lot, and this past weekend my eyes watered quite a bit, I didn't think anything of it until today when the windows were open in my classroom n I spent the next two hours in allergy hell. I'm talking runny eyes, nose, congested, sinus pressure, the whole deal...and then some. Liana and I just trecked to the pharmacie closest to home and the lady gave me nasal spray and pills. The pills are only for night and seem pretty tiny so heres to hoping I can get them down without problems. Oh what I would do for some good old fashioned benedryl...

Also interesting from today;
I chatted with a friend who is from China, and she was telling me how she doesn't understand why everyone hates people from Tibet, and Chinese people in general, or rather is sort of racist against them. She brought up how one of her french friends said it was because of what happened there, and she didn't have a clue what he was talking about. I told her I knew very little about it, but that there have been many protests, and massacres there.(I was thinking Tienanmen square stuff..but upon further research I guess there has been even more recent problems in Tibet circa 2008) and she again, had no idea. Then she informed me that in China, everything similar to(and including) facebook, youtube, wikipedia, etc. is banned completely. She said the government sort of hides things from them and only let's them in on bad stuff when it's widespread and really bad. Her example was the SARS scare a few years back. She said a bunch of people in China, including someone famous died from it and the government denied it until they couldn't anymore. Now normally this wouldn't be blog worthy, because everyone is taught that China has communism, and that it's weird for us to comprehend. But I wanted to put it into perspective how truly lucky we are to be able to access internet, television, music, ...media in general, and everything else that we want pretty much at our own leisure. We have a great advantage that I think is taken for granted. It definitely made me think about how happy I am to have free reign over things that get overlooked so easily, I mean, how many times a day do you check facebook? read a news article online? research something random using wikipedia? or enjoy the latest song on youtube? If you ask me, I use all of these and more everyday, and frankly I'm glad I can. perspective.

Saint Malo & Mont Saint Michel

Good afternoon readers =)

Yesterday was the first of 4 CIDEF excursions (I only plan to attend 3), of which we went to Saint Malo and Mont Saint Michel. I woke up bright and early (5:30am) and found a bunch of people from home online, which was an odd experience for me, but alas, I got my act together and quickly got ready. Liana and I packed some snacks, ate a quick breakfast, and departed, only to be attacked by a morning rain, which did not do wonders on my (newly brown) hair. We arrived slightly wet, but still happy at around 7, and quickly found les filles and boarded our bus, which by luck was the one M. Melin was on, and he made the experience slightly better by randomly spewing facts of different places at us, and making constant jokes.
The bus.
Oh my, well you know those trips you take in middle school that always seem fun because you're on a chartered bus and its all comfy and nice and you're with friends so it's great? yeah, well fast-forward to college and it has lost it's appeal. being with my friends helped, but no matter how many times we switched were we were seated, we ended up near people who were being obnoxiously loud and telling various life stories that we didn't care to hear. We were exhausted and wanted to sleep, but even if it had been quiet, there's no way it would have happened. We spent the majority of the time swapping random stories(and mean jokes of the others on the bus) listening to our ipods, and (on the way home) laughing for no particular reason-out of complete and utter slap-happiness.

All bus complaining aside, when we arrived in Saint Malo, it was worth every second of it. Saint Malo is this beautiful city located right on the English Channel/ Atlantic Ocean, in Bretagne. It is known for its pirates and a few well known French people, like Jacques Cartier-who discovered Canada.M. Melin also informed us that during WWII, nearly everyone (Germans, English, French, Americans) bombed this particular city, and it was rebuilt after-wards, and everything was restored to it's original fashion. Incredible.  We descended the bus, and I immediately smelled the Ocean and felt at ease. Something about that smell gets me every time. Les filles and me walked the ramparts taking pictures for a while and finally finding a way down to the beach. We climbed through seaweed covered rocks, looked for seacreatures(Liana), pocketed a few shells, walked the sandy beach, and I let the Ocean water cover just a little bit of my shoes.(I wanted to go in the water!) I could write forever about how amazing this place felt and I truly believe I could have spent a lot more time just at the Ocean/beach part of Saint Malo. However we didn't have much time, so we went looking for apple pastries, and ended up getting something that I felt was better. =) After our quick pastry shop stop, we wandered the cobblestone streets and found a quaint little pub complete with a real fire burning in the fireplace. The four of us sat down and enjoyed some Cidre while chatting in front of the fire. Eventually we made it back to our starting point, and boarded the bus.

A huge wave of exhaustion hit on the ride to Mont Saint Michel, and even though I fought it, I dozed off for a few minutes. Mont Saint Michel is amazing. It is this very old, very beautiful island complete with an abbey, and a lot of tourist-y things. This time of year, only 20 people actually live on it, and it is usually surrounded by water(hence it being an island) but yesterday the ride was out really far, and people were actually walking around in the sand surrounding it (not recommended-quick sand). We chose to stay away from being swallowed into sand, and took part in what can only be described as the best workout program available, a million stairs. Okay, maybe not a million, but there were a TON. We followed right behind M. Melin and when we got to the top, although all of us(m. included) were huffing and puffing, the view was worth it. I can only describe it as breathtaking. We then took a tour of the Abbey, of which I took a lot of pictures. The whole place is very quiet and calming and the sun managed to come out making it even more beautiful. After the Abbey, we wandered down the tourist-y traps and Gabby got a sandwich-and all of us used the bathroom there, only to find out it was out of any sort of toilet paper or paper towel, so I asked the lady at the counter for napkins! (Our options were napkins, bus bathroom-EW, or the public, latrine-like, bathroom at the bottom of le Mont..ick) After this we wandered in and out of shops and I got some vanilla gelato-excellent. We took a few more pictures and boarded the bus home.
We got back and all of us were very hungry, so we headed over to Bressigny and got some greasy yet delicious food before heading home to shower, update facebook, and eventually pass out.
Overall I'd say I liked Saint Malo better, simply because of the Ocean/beach. The history of both places is incredible and I don't think there is really anything that compares to them in the states.

I guess I'll be sleeping on the bus 2moro...

Well, what's new to tell you?
I am finally getting the hang of being in class again after almost 2 full months off of school, and let me tell you, going from nothing to 18 hours of class a week is brutal, inconvenient, torture. ;)
The homework so far hasn't been too hard, just very time consuming, and I find that I am occupied more than I was before, which definitely helps my mood elevate.

Things worth noting:
-Pasta place on bressigny is amazing, and the cute lil man who runs it made my day on thursday =)
-Teachers who cancel a weeks worth of class(3 total hours) and then change them to 8ams spread on the day I don't have class until almost 4pm, make me want to throw myself off the 5th floor of the Bazin.
-8am Friday classes are never going to get easier....especially if I continue to go out on Thursday nights.
-My teachers, shop owners, and even random people have thought I was swedish, or russian, but tonight I dyed my hair dark brown, so hopefully the confusion will cease. ;)

Things that need a little more explaining:
-My traduction prof. this week asked me to read an answer, so I did and he was like uhmm what? (the answer I had was a-t-elle.....) so I said "A...t...elle"  very slowly, n he spells on the board "ATL" and says again "what?" to which I say "non, pas la lettre...elle...comme une fille..." as I turn increasingly more red. Finally he gets what I was saying and apologizes for getting it wrong. We were both red as tomatoes after this horrible (but now laughable) experience.
-Liana and I have been talking more with Chantal, and it helps, she actually kind of sits awkwardly with us now expecting us to tell her our life stories but we're not quite there yet, however she has taken to walking around in a robe a lot (as does dominique) so I'm guessing she's used to us.
-We made dinner tonight, and I'm not talking boxed, heat it up and eat it dinner. So far, when we have cooked it has been soup, baguette pizza, or random concauctions with eggs and peppers(which actually were quite good) but no, this time we made croque monsieurs the good old fashioned way, and they were worth every minute=) We followed by carmalizing some bananas for dessert and voila.=)

2moro is the first CIDEF excursion, to Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo (google them, you'll be jealous)
however, we depart the school at 7:15am, which means getting there no later than 7am. I regret to admit I have my alarm set to 5:20 am, and looking at the clock, I'm going to call it a night. I promise to tell all about stinky bus adventures, and the beautiful experience of the ocean=) Pray it doesn't rain!

Goodnight faithful readers.<3

Traduction: the best way to spend an evening overthinking every.single.word.you.write.

Chantal took liana n i to the mall and they have this sort of meijer-like store in it, I found a backpack that will work fairly well for the excursions/sb stuff(i hope!) for 19.50E soooo i bought it, its a cute gray/tan color, and very european..

Things we learned from said experience:
-Chantal walks slow, and keeping pace with her takes concentration
-Her car smells oddly of pine but there arent any airfresheners anywhere.
-self-checkouts are not worth it, theyre confusing and sometimes don't register ur money is in the machine. (happened to liana, but the lady there fixed it)
-the mall is way closer than i thought and on the way home I knew exactly how to get back! YAY!

Other notable things:
-the instant coffee machines at CIDEF are not only cheap, but amazing.
-Orangina sometimes has pulp in it.=/ Ew
-traduction homeowrk will make you want to kill yourself.
-Dominique a la grippe! (flu!) ....mental note to not go near him...
-I plan on dying my hair soon, and might ask Chantals advice on the matter, as I saw she had a box of coloring mousse on the counter a few days ago.

Change is neccessary in life.

So a few of my friends back home are having a bit of a struggle with a few things. I wrote this about a week before I left for France, and only a few have seen it, but one friend in particular needs to cheer up and be inspired by life again. I am not claiming that this will do it, because, well I wrote it, let's be honest, I'm destined to be a teacher, not a writer, but well, I hope it helps you at least a little. Everyone else, sorry this has nothing to do with France.

Change is good right? Or it’s supposed to be.

It’s supposed to propel you from one moment in life into a new one.

 It’s supposed to bring hard things, but good as well.

But here’s the thing.

How do we know that the choices we make towards this change are good for us in the long run?

We take chances, big chances that can either make or break us.

Most of us are on the verge of the breaking side.

Most people my age are scared shitless of failure.

Fear of failing to live up to the expectations of parents, siblings, peers, professors, and themselves.

We let this fear guide us in our decisions, so we choose the career that is safe and will make them proud,

or we can choose to follow our hearts, and end up either falling on our asses,

or completely succeeding further than we could have ever imagined.

We could be the accountant calculating every last breath behind a cubicle smaller than our brains.

Or we could be the rockstar singin’ in a bar hoping one day, one day it’s gonna’ happen.

We could be safe in our perfect little houses all lined up right in a row,

but I’d rather be the sad pathetic girl with thousands of  dollars in loans,

singing at the bar, than selling my soul, and everything I once believed in

to someone who thinks it’s what is best for me.  

Is there a set answer out there,

something I’m missing?

Some strategic ‘how to’ plan on success and life, and no regrets?

I think that the answer is, we don’t know. We never will, and that is just how life works,

it’s meant to be vague and messy and unbelievably hard, because if it wasn’t,

when something great and big and amazing did happen…it wouldn’t feel big or amazing,

it would just be another good thing that happened.

Life is messy,

change is scary,

but both must happen.

I am scared to death that I have made one mistake too many,

and taken the wrong road too many times,

that I will never fully get to where I need to end up.

I have learned that being afraid of things you can’t control

is pointless, but it is also common.

There is no way of knowing what will be, what could be, or

where you will end up in 10, 20 or even30 years.

 Will you have that dream job, the family, and the white picket fence?

Is that even what you want?

Or just what you’re programmed to want.

Will there ever be that moment where you realize ‘this is it’ ,

this is what I want, and I am finally where I need to be?

I have to believe that there will be that moment.

I have to believe it like I used to believe

the tooth fairy exchanged teeth for wishes and some spare change,

or that Santa Claus could travel all around the world in just one night

and still have time to bring magic to our lives,

like I still believe in God.

 Like every night I spend talking to myself praying to something bigger than me,

bigger than us.

I have to believe it because if I don’t

I have to believe I won’t know what to believe.

There are things we all believe in and trust without proof that it is there.

Love swirls in our minds like the winter wind whipping at our faces,

faith gets dropped easier than that the words ‘I love you’,

courage is harder to find in a college student than happiness in our parents.

But we try,

and we strive to believe,

and like those children still barely there inside of us,

we hold on to this as we once held each other.

I have faith that there will be that moment,

change will happen,

decisions will be made, paths will be crossed,

and changed,

re-routed…but eventually

we all end up where we were meant to be.

We just have to believe.

Singles Awareness, Care Packages of awesomeness, and valentines day bonding..

Mon jour de Saint Valentin....

Okay I don't want to give a play-by-play of classes, that would bore you all(and me) to tears. I will share a little info I found quite unnerving. My traduction prof handed back our "practice" sheets from last week that will not count for or against us, it was simply to show us what to expect. I about had a heart attack when I saw 9.5 on my paper. (That is 9.5 out of 20 mind you) After the majority of us had the same devestated look on our faces our prof gave us this bit of info: in france if u score between 9-14 out of 20 it's considered good, and if it's lower you need work. You may ask, then what is 20/20 considered? "haha impossible pour tous"-prof adrien ...I guess it's considered impossible for students to even get 18/20. and if you score above 14 they are dramatically impressed with you. French people are weird. ;)

So we were all able to purchase tickets to go to Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo this Saturday with the CIDEF excursions, and honestly Im pretty pumped to get out of Angers and see stuff, Chantal told me to look through her travel books if I wanted, to check it out before getting there. So I might.

I recieved a package in the mail from my parents today, filled with random amazingness like mac n cheese and peanut butter. They included valentines day laffy taffy, and I immediately thought "I bet Chantal and Dom have never had this" So I ended up giving them some, which led to Liana and I struggling to translate the jokes on the back to Chantal. The three of us ended up at the snackbar with Chantals huge dictionary trying to explain the word ointment...oh mon dieu. It was actually quite fun, we ended up chatting with Chantal over some tea about school, and valentines day, and how it is commercialized in America and not so much here. She asked us about spring break plans and when we told her she told me she has tour books in my room for spain and maybe italy, and some of the others, and to check em out. =) She then got all excited about a movie she has based in spain, and went to find it for us. It is not sitting on my desk and Liana and I plan to watch it this week if we can figure out the player upstairs...hmm

Speaking of valentines day. Okay. I normally hate the holiday, but today it wasn't commercialized, and the only time I noticed it was while on fb, or when I saw a boy walking down the road with flowers...that was of course until Chantal scared the crap out of me by calling me downstairs to inform me she went outside to let mozart out and there were flowers on the stoop, for Liana and Me. I immediately knew they were from Leah and laughed, but Chantal was convinced it was a french boy or at least an american, later when we told her it was our friend leah, who is in fact, a girl...she asked if that was normal...hahaha oh man.

There is no flow to this post at all, my thoughts are all over the place, but you guys will just have to deal with it, because I need to go to bed soon-ish. (probably won't happen) anyway. I asked Chantal where I can find a backpack, or a mall, or something, because I'd like to have one for the excursions and for spring break, and she answered me with another question..."what time are you two out of class tomorrow?" I was caught off guard by that so I couldn't remember, but I knew it was either 5 or 6, and so she said "okay, 6 o clock 2moro I'll take you two to the mall to find you a backpack."....wow. okay cool. So Chantal sort of rocks. I was expecting bus directions or something, but nope, I get my own personal french guide to help me find it.

Much of this post was about Chantal/host fam stuff. but it's cuz we talked with them a lot today, and I have to admit it made my day go a lot better.I am getting to know them better, and (slowly) overcoming my shyness with Chantal, so hopefully I'll feel more and more comfortable here as time goes on. (and hopefully less homesick)

Is asking you to wear bubble wrap too much too ask?

Okay, so the first "trial" week of classes is over and I didn't change my mind, so the classes I listed b4 are the ones I'll b in all semester. The scheduling here is nuts and weird, oh you want an example? We have been attending courses for a week but don't sign up for them until Monday, and how you ask, do we sign up for them?Our langue teacher asks what we want to take, and its all done by hand. As if this isn't weird enough, the classes, are all over the place. French people need a lesson in ocd...oh, right another example. Hm, okay well you will have langue in the main building one day from 1-3 and then the next it will be in a different building at a different time. The only thing consistent is the teacher, and that no one else seems to know what the hell they're doing either.
So I'll break it down for you on the boring stats of my classes.
Monday I'm in class from 9am-12:15, then I have a lunch break(everyone does) until 1:30, and am back in class til 3:30. not horrible.
Tuesday starts at 10 am until 12:15, then again 1:30 until 4:45...or something like that.
Wednesday I only have one class, and it is 3:45-4:45
Thursday is retarded. but ironically was my favorite day of last week. I have a class from 9-11ish, then 1:30-3:30, then 5-5:55....breaks are lame, but I'll deal with it eventually.
Friday I have one class and brace yourselves. its at 8am. until 10. ugh.

So I suppose you want an update on what's been going on these past few days. D'accord. Thursday was a long day of classes.My phonetics prof is nuts, I mean this in the nicest way possible. She has a lot of speech tics which is odd because she teaches a phonetics course, oh the irony. She will prove to be quite entertaining though(I hope). Liana, Gabby and I grabbed some delish pasta on Bressigny at lunchtime, and will def. be making that place a regular.So after my langue class I had over an hour to kill before traduction, I ended up doing the langue homework and chatting with a few girls from class, and one french girl =) Traduction is going to be one of those difficult but worth it classes, plus it's a small class, the prof is tres tres cute (but also not straight) and I think it's going to be my favorite.
Thursday night, Liana, Gabby and I went to James Joyce, which is an irish pub in town. Liana and I ordered carribean drinks, and Gabby got what can only be described as Tequila with a hint of lime. We left feeling barely warm (except for Gabby) and decided to hit up a small store for more...Liana and I stuck with beer, and Gabby bought a smirnoff. Okay it's legal to drink walking down the streets here so thats what we did(Minus Gabby who couldn't get the smirnoff open.) and eventually made our way back home. I was up pretty late that night because I couldn't fall asleep due to the effects of our nights activities.
Friday morning was an immediate regret of the previous night, and when my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. I wanted nothing more than to hit snooze, but I couldn't. I ended up back in bed at 11ish once I ventured home and ate a little something. That night we ended up having Leah, Gabby and Nikki over to try some cheeses and to much disappointment, they were all a fail. We drank sangria swapped some stories and eventually headed out for the night. This time we went to a few different places, and I had a shot that they lit on fire. It was delicious. The bars were pretty crowded and sketchy, so we ended up back at our petit market to buy some beer yet again. The night was overall quite fun and interesting and I'm glad I finally had a night out with some friends. I needed that.

Yesterday Liana and I walked in the pouring rain to SuperU, to look around, we bought some grocery items and on our way home we stopped at a patisserie for a beignet and a petite tarte. Then we spent a lot of the day watching glee and greys anatomy reruns and eventually had dinner with Chantal, Dominique, their daughter, son in law, and two grandchildren. We started with snacks and champagne, then had the main course: a north african dish consisting of couscous lamb, veggies, and spiceyness(THANK U!), next was a cheese course(I still just don't like cheese very much, other than laughing cow...sigh) and after we had this custardy dessert that we drizzled chocolate on, and Dominique made Liana and I try his concoction of raisins, cranberries and rhum...it was very strong but overall quite tasty. The whole time of dinner we drank Red Wine. The family was very nice and when they weren't talking directly to us, they talked really fast and it was difficult to comprehend most of what they were saying.

So after that my night got a little crappy. I signed online after dinner only to find out my sister had been in a car accident in Michigan, and it was a long scary process of me waiting for info while sitting online (because I have no cell phone) but in the end it was okay. She pulled out in front of someone, and they hit head on, her car is a goner, her airbags went off which scratched her all up and I'm sure shes full of bruises. I convinced her to go get checked out and Jon took her to the hospital where they concluded that she didn't have a concussion, and would be fine, just sore. That was the scariest moment I've had while here, all I could think was I'm 4,000 miles from home, without a cell phone, and getting home is less than easy(if I needed to). I talked with some friends and Liana for a while and eventually calmed down about it, but it was scary. All that matters is that she is okay.
but Pleaseeee guys be as careful as possible, always. That accident could have easily been much worse, and that is one of my biggest fears while I'm here. Every one please be cautious and safe. =)

                                                                                                      A few random tidbits:
-Dominique loves taunting Liana and I. He asks if we're going out ever, then when we do he says "amusez-vous" in a mocking tone. He always asks if we have friends, or are meeting them somewhere, and the other night he got to meet some of them. Saturday morning he asked Liana and I how our night was (we were out pretty late) and then asked if we had found a "french lover" yet...and he said "french lover" in english, so trust me, I didn't misunderstand him. Oh lord. He's quite funny, and I'm slowly getting accustomed to the fact that they want us to be going out on bar nights, and such.
-Chantals daughter brought her cat here, Lilu. She is adorable, and sweet, and purrs really loudly, and slept in Lianas bed for a while when we watched programs on our laptops. This morning she meowed n clawed and pushed until I let her in my room, then she crawled all over me purring n stepping on my books, sitting in my lap, anything she could to get me from completing my homework. Oh mon dieu! she loves attention, but she is cute and I love cats, so of course I didn't mind(too much).
-There is no place to buy ingredients for, or already made queso dip, or anything remotely mexican (food wise) We have also not seen cheddar cheese, but we haven't given up looking.

Feelings: I am mixed. I love exploring and being here, the food is different, the culture is interesting, the classes are a bit odd. but, I miss home, I miss friends and family, and when things happen at home and I have no way of contacting anyone or doing anything about it, it only makes it worse. There is quite a bit of time where I am not doing much of anything, and I think that is why I am frequently feeling down about things.

On that note, this post was way too long, I applaud those who read all of it, and Please be safe and make good choices, or maybe live like bubble boy until I get back. ;)

They never said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it....right?

A new found friend said to me yesterday "you know, I've done a lot of exploring, but I've done it alone, and I realized that it doesn't mean anything when you're alone. When you have noone to share the moment, what's the point?"

Well for being someone I just met, I felt this was a very loaded question, and hit altogether too close to home for me. I'm at the point in the trip where I've seen the city, I've taken pictures, and now had a few classes. I'm at the 'waiting for it to get better/interesting' point, so right now the loneliness mentioned above? Yeah, that's exactly what I'm feeling. The only phsyical touching I've done for about two weeks now is a handshake, and those are far and few between. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you think about it, how many times a day do you hug someone before separating, cuddle with your best friend on the couch, or your significant other later? How many of you can say they have gone a full 14 days without any of this? It's a very strange feeling.

At first this new found liberty and freedom to go and do what I wanted with whom I wanted was amazing, and exciting, but right now...It's just plain lonely. I miss my friends back home, and I guess the magical feeling of being here has subsided. I know that this is still where I need to be, and that it will get easier, and that this feeling will go away, but I wanted to give everyone a bit of the not so exciting outlook of this as well. (also, the main reason I'm keeping this blog is for me to look back on, and I want to document everything I've felt, and that includes the bad stuff)

To go back to my new friends question; I guess I'll use a quote from one of my new found favorite movies 'Remember me'. Ahem "Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it's very important that you do it, because nobody else will." Travelling alone is very much a liberating feeling, but yes, it does in fact make you feel just what it sounds like; very small, very alone, in this big world. I feel very alone these days, and if any of you know me, you know I don't take to making friends easily, and putting myself out there, therefore this isn't an easy experience for me. That being said, I plan to travel more, alone or not, and I will document as much of it as I can, to share with those who couldn't be there with me.

2 months off of school is now biting me in the ass.

okay, so the last time I updated it was, what Thursday? hmm. okay.

I'm not going to fill you in on a bunch of information of each day, because one, I'm too tired, and two, I doubt you all read it anyway.

so thursday Liana and I explored the town at night and got into some sketchy areas, but it was okay, and made for some pretty pictures. We heard a lot of parties going on, and were jealous, so we tried to find alcohol of our own, but unless we sat at a bar(non, merci) we were out of luck. So we went home and eventually went to sleep.
Friday we did some exploring of the other side of Angers, and got a little lost but alas, it made for good pictures, fun with friends and of course a stop at a patisserie =)

Saturday we were up sort of early, and went to the market for some eggs and some other things. We then went to Angers local soccer (futball) game, and got in for free! Ladies were free, so that was cool, We had to go through a security pat down that felt more like being felt up than a pat down, but all went well. We watched the game and chatted, but it was cold, so we left at the halftime break. (only after being hit on by a creepy man claiming to have attended med school in the u.s.)That night Liana and I tried France's equivalent to the four loko, Desperado Red, and let me tell you, I was not impressed. It tastes like kool-aid-y tequila, so it's easy enough to drink, except I didn't feel drunk at all, all I felt was energized from it, which caused me to not sleep very well that night(or since for that matter, but I can't blame that on alcohol)
Sunday was sunny, blue skies and just under 50 degrees, so although Liana and I were going to be lazy all day, when Dominique suggested we go outside and enjoy it, we felt guilty, so we did. We ended up walking across town and seeing Leah, buying potato chips =) and bueno bars (I didn't really like it, but Liana fell in love) We explored Leah's neighborhood, and eventually ended up by the big fountain talking and watching adorable french children(why are they cuter than american ones?) until it started to get cold and dark, so Liana and I headed home.
We were proud of the fact that we made french bread pizzas ourselves, and were enjoying them when, Mozart peed all over the kitchen floor! Liana freaked out and I just kept eating lol. We didn't want to say "peed" to chantal so we were trying to figure out a way to tell her, when she walked in to ask us about doing our laundry..Liana pointed to the ground and said "uh..mozart..." and chantal said "oh mon dieu Mozart a fait pee pee?....DOMINIQUEEEEE" ....alas poor Dominique came in and cleaned it up while Chantal showed us how to do laundry (we still turned our whites blue.)
Monday was the big day of finding out about exams...we were beyond nervous. but it ended up being okay. I placed 324 for all of you out there wondering. This put me in a 6 credit hour langue class, and was a little higher than M. Palka and I had planned, but alas it will be okay. (j'espere!)
I won't bore you with those details but when it was all said and done I was at school for 13 hours on Monday, and just over 8 today, thankfully tomorrow I only have one class. sigh.

quick overview of what I'm taking/about them.

Langue-6 credit hours(324 level) I like my prof and made some Chinese friends, so it should be okay. It is a little challenging already though.

Litterature-3 credits. Ugh, shoot me, the prof was super boring and kept asking us to name authors (french) of the 20th century...uhm. sorry I'm from America and don't know many of those authors let alone yours.oh well heres to hoping it gets better.

Traduction-3 credits. this is a translation course for english-french, the prof is super nice(and gorgeous) and the homework wasn't too bad. I feel like I'll learn a lot from this class. (and prof. blue eyes helps my mood a little)

Histoire- 3 credits. covers 1789-1950, and normally I wouldn't like this, but the prof was amazing, super nice and funny. I took notes,and she made it interesting to learn. I think this might be my fav course.

Phonetique- 3 credits. haven't had this one yet, I'll have it on Thursday and let you know how that one goes.

tidbits:
-Shannon might come visit me after her classes are done=) This makes me very very happy as I miss friends and home very much.
-Liana and I are getting better at the whole cooking thing...kind of.
-my straightener bit the dust, so I had to buy one here, and will be using it 2moro.


-Many people find me more interesting once they find out I'm american, but so far on first guess they think I'm russian or swedish...must be the blonde hair. Idk.

Our feet carry us to destinations new to us...

What exciting things do I have to share with you? none, really haha. Okay I am in France, so maybe a few.

Liana and I learned to not venture out walking at 5pm here cuz oh my gah, it's crazy! Everyone is out of work and school and meshing together to walk/drive/bike/bus/other home. Seriously, it was the most people I have seen here out all at once. Also, what is the deal with middle schoolers smoking? That would not fly in the U.S. come on kids, you're like 12, I get you think it's cool and all but at least give it a few years. Anyway.

We woke up bright and early to take the placement exam, and I turned on my laptop that morning to be greeted by many friends still awake from adventures of the previous night. Apparently Michigan got a teeny bit of snow? ;) Well, while all of you were getting your drink on, and enjoying a snow day. I made my way to CIDEF and oh mon dieu. The exam started simply enough, except the cd played for the first section and NONE of the answers were matching up. I went into severe panic attack mode n was beginning to sweat and freak, when the guy running the exam looked REAL embaressed, and he stopped the cd, and said he had been using the wrong one, then switched em. OKAY so after that, it went better. There were parts when I was like "wait, what the hayell did that girl jus say?" and others were I kept second guessing my answers, but I have been told by numerous people to have faith in myself and just let it go. So I did my best(I hope) and left.

Wednesday was Chandeleur, which is basically a day for crepes, so we went out to a creperie for lunch, and had some galettes and crepes, with Cidre...which let me tell you, is pure deliciousness. (sidenote: it is perfectly acceptable to drink alcohol with crepes, and at noon nonetheless.) After this our petite group did some shopping in the centre-ville and parted ways.

Later Liana, myself and Gabby (she also is from NC) joined together and trecked across the city to Leah's, where she made us spring rolls for dinner, and again, we had some cidre. (now before any of you think we're a bunch of alcoholics, cidre is 2% alcohol per bottle, and the bottles are the size of wine bottles, so really, cut us a break) The dinner was good, the conversation made me feel at ease, and the 3 legged cat was icing on that evenings cake.
This morning Liana and I took advantage of the rain, and slept in, and eventually made it to town around 1, and let me tell you, it was 15 degrees celcius, and I'm not sure the farenheit there but it was defineately a welcome change to the ice cold crap we have been dealing with...and Quel Chance! The sun came out and the skies were (cloudy) but blue! it was quite amazing, and I took advantage by snapping a few photos.

So we eventually got our group of 4 together again, and trecked across the bridge, and got (un peu) lost on the other side of Angers, but it was fine, and a pretty adventure to say the least. We came across an old hospital that I forgot the name of now, but it used to be a hospital and now houses a tapistry(we didn't pay the charge to go check it out) but it also has a beautiful garden that we roamed around.

We managed to snag some cheap and amazingly delish croque monsieurs on our walk home. (Liana described it as two peices of bread, with ham and alfredo on it-like a sandwhich- and then add melted mozzerella on top.) oh my gah. it's a new favorite for sure.
After a quick stop at the market for a few groceries, we ended up back home for the night.

Dominique asked Liana n i if we were going to the bar tonight, and he was so excited I felt sad to break his spirit, but alas. I told him we were too tired to go out. We later came downstairs to find him asleep on the couch with the tv on and mozart sleeping just below him on the floor. I really do love my host family, they are comforting and quite cute.

A few random tidbits:
-Thursday is THE night to go out in this town, according to Dominique, and judging by the noise I hear outside I'd say he was correct.
-There are Atm's everywhere here, and my atm is extremely common, which makes me happy.
-You usually have to pay to use a restroom here, Liana did it, and apparently did not enjoy the facilities ;)
-If you say "non, merci" quickly after people ask you something, they may assume you didn't understand them, and switch to speaking english, even though you really understood them but just did not want their product. sigh.
-Catcalls are growing on me, and I find it more amusing than appalling now. Soon we might get adventurous and shout "Les garcons" back at them to see their reactions...then again peut-etre pas.