A day I'll never forget about

Yesterday we went on our last CIDEF excursion, to Normandy. What's in Normandy, you ask? Well for one, do me a favor...and smack yourself. Now that that's done, I'll tell you. =) I hope you all have enough WWII knowledge in your brains to know that France was occupied by Nazi Germany during it. America, Canada and Britain (and some french) joined forces and planned an attack on the Normand beaches. It was the largest attack made from water in world history. At midnight on June 6th, 1944, about 24,000 airborne troops conducted an assault on the area, and at around 6:30am was when the remainder (over 160,000 troops landed total that day) assaulted the beach area by ship. (over 5,000 of them!) There were many codenames for this attack in order to keep it secret from the German troops occupying the land to be bombed. They had soldiers in planes, in ships, parachuting down, and wading onto shore, climbing cliffs, etc. just to fight for freedom and peace within the world.  The entire invasion took place across a 50 mile stretch of Normandy's coast and divided by sectors of beach; Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The majority of U.S. troops stormed Omaha beach and Utah beach, but let's face it; there were a lot of them, I can guarantee they stormed each beach. Now that you have a small history lesson, I can fill you in on what we did, that is if any of you are still reading.

I woke up at a bright and early 4:15 a.m. to get my ass moving and be at school in time to leave a little after 6. Sleeping on the bus was almost completely a fail on the way there, but I got to listen to my ipod for 3 straight hours while staring at french countryside become lighter and lighter.(sun rising) Our first destination was in Caen, at a museum/memorial for WWII. We all had a little over an hour to walk through the exhibits. (which wasn't enough time to read everything, but I did learn some new things, and was starting to feel increasingly sad and overwhelmed near the end anyway) After we explored the exhibit, we all watched a film in which there was no talking, just music to explain emotions. This was probably my favorite part of the museum just because it was real footage of the beaches on that fateful day. I cannot even begin to describe how weird it was to see people parachuting down, flying over, wading in, climbing up, etc. and all the while explosions are going off, guns being fired, people are falling, and the sun isn't even up yet. The film ended and everyone sat in silence for a minute, mainly because we didn't know where to go next, but also and more importantly because we were all shocked and saddened.
After this, we grabbed our lunches from the bus, and sprawled out in the grass next to the museum. This lightened the mood because the day was beautiful. I spent a little over an hour eating and chatting with Liana and Leah, as we all laid in the grass and played with daisy's. We took a break for bathrooms and postcard buying, then it was back on the buses, and on to the next place.

Next we went to the American Cemetery, which is actually owned by the U.S. I don't actually remember talking the entire time I walked through this, I was pretty much in awe of how huge and sad it all was. There are rows upon rows of white crosses and stars of David, and no picture I took does the place justice. It was very humbling to realize that each and every one of them were a person that fought for our freedom, for the worlds freedom, and that many of them were unidentified. It brought up a sense of emotion I didn't realize I would experience, all about how many of them were young, not old enough to have experienced as much life as even I have now, and the ones who did were still not ready. They had families, and kids, brothers, sisters, parents, all of which proud of them, but waiting for them to come home. Which brings up my next thought. Pride. This place was full of what America is good at portraying; pride. The marble crosses and stars of David were all lined in very neat and tidy rows, the place was spread out and well kept, to give off the impression of not only sadness but of pride for what was accomplished. There were statues that resembled lady liberty, and the entire place rests on a cliff off of the beach where I'm sure many of these wonderful people lost their lives. After exploring it for a while, Liana, Leah and I made our way to the front where there was a small museum to go through. We didn't have time to really look through much of it, but the weirdest part of this small museum for me wasn't anything to do with the war. It was instead something that hit me as odd. 

A man was handing out pamphlets and I passed him he asked me in english, and with a english accent, if I would like one. I shyly said yes, thank you back to him. But finding those words was hard. It has literally been months since I have spoken english to an authority figure. I speak it with my girls all the time, but that's it. And it was a very odd feeling to speak english, and it didn't come naturally. This was the first moment since I've been here where I realized I might in fact have a hard time adjusting to life when I come home in June.
enough about that.
After we all boarded the buses, we sat there for some time waiting, because one of the students had wandered down to the beach (we weren't supposed to) and we had to wait for him to come back. Which made us late for our next stop. Omaha beach. We were supposed to have time to walk and relax, but we had 15 minutes or so instead. Oh well, it didn't stop us from taking off our shoes and socks, rolling up our jeans and sprinting into the freezing Atlantic water. =) It felt amazing to have no coat on, and have my feet in the ocean . fantastic. Now you might be thinking, girl you were on the beach were many many soldiers died fighting for our freedom and you were frolicking in the water? Yes, yes I was. Those soldiers were fighting for our freedom, not for us to be continuously sad, I was being free and allowing myself that simple joy. On another note, if I were to walk around and not allow myself to feel anything but sad for the lives lost in places I'm at, I'd be sad almost all the time. Hello, I'm in France, and this country is OLD, a lot of people have died in places we have all been. Life isn't about dwelling on death, but focusing on living.
That being said, I did still feel that twinge of sadness and there are monuments on the beach to commemorate the loss of lives for the gain of freedom.
We left the beach and headed to the Point du Hoc. Which was basically a very important place between two beaches that we had to take over before the beaches could be stormed. Soldiers had to climb 100 ft cliffs while it was still dark and attack the German troops resting there. The reason we visited this place is because the U.S. payed to have it kept how it was during the war instead of filled in and made to look normal. The rolling hills there? yeah, not so much. They're holes from bombs dropped on d-day. The barracks are destroyed, and overgrown with moss and are horribly eerie to walk through.  The barbed wire still stands along the edges and you can look down the cliffs at the sand below and just imagine how horrifying it all must have been. Standing there and looking out at the sea and other beautiful cliffs jutting into it, I got the overwhelming feeling that something horrible happened here, and it was ironic, because it is all so breathtakingly beautiful. We wandered here for a long time, and I was happy to have time to explore it all.
Next, and last was the German Cemetery; which was very different than the American one. First, all of the stones are set into the ground, and are grayish. There are black crosses in clumps, in a few places, but it all struck me as sort of dark, and almost...ashamed? It made me feel sad to know that this place probably wasn't visited much, but that it being there at all meant a lot as well. We were told that the majority of the soldiers buried here were 17 years old at their age of death. That's two years younger than I am right now, and I don't know about any of you, but I sure as hell find that fact to be frightening. Another fact I learned and never forgot about the German army during WWII was that it wasn't an option. How we had the draft going on? Yeah they did too, only it was much worse, and they were forced in at I believe the age of 16 or 17. Many didn't finish high school, and had to fight for an army which I'm sure many of them didn't want to. The movie Swing kids came to mind here.

After the cemetery, we all boarded our buses and headed home. The drive was long and I was too absorbed in my own thoughts and emotions to talk to anyone, so I cranked my ipod, pulled up the hood on my coat, curled into a ball in my seat, and did manage to sleep for an hour-ish of the drive.Made it back to good ole Angers at a little after 10p.m. Ironic that we spent a long day exploring the places that correlate with the nickname "the longest day". Food for thought.

I would fill you in on more minor details, but this post is long enough and I can do that later in the week. I hope all of you had spectacular weekends, and that you weren't too bored by what I wrote.
This isn't the film they showed, but it might help give you a little perspective:6.6.44

Must be something in the water..

Two things that are notable about today, we will start with the more pleasant, and maybe less amusing of them.
One: UCO (universite catholique de l'ouest) kids were out and about today raising awareness for Aids (le SIDA) complete with pamphlets, magnets, people getting up in yo face, baked goods? preservatifs (haha condoms..im mature) and last but certainly the most entertaining; dancing to american music?!? C'est quoi ca? They were playing old american music and I witnessed it during lunchtime, and also during a particularly long break between classes. What songs were they playing you ask? well, the most popular (and the most choreographed) was Hey baby, but with a few french twists, and was absolutely adorable and made me feel more at home in this place. Other popular songs played and danced to were hit the road jack, and the hustle.(apparently there is one line dance that is universal) They did this all day and I have to say it made my day better, even if it did get songs stuck in my head rather badly.
Hey Baby(version they were listening to) -Hey baby-DJ otzi

Two: soooooooooo I have to tell it as a story for you to get the full nastyness. ;)
I was attempting to nap/sleep but the neighbors are partying it up so i was laying on my bed in the dark wen Liana comes in and DOESNT scare me for once. haha anyway. She goes "amy..u need to come see this"
"uhm...see what?"-me
"Idk. It might be fuzz, but it moved when I walked by...I think it's a spider"-Liana
"omg no"-me (as i get up and follow her)
"OMG nooooo.ew ew ew ew ew ew EEEeeeeWWWwwwwwEW"-me
No words can properly describe how horribly petrified I am of spiders, and how much I would have rather it had been a people eating dragon than a spider. Anyway. There must be something funny in the water because this thing was HUGE, and when I say huge at home I'm usually talking the ones that are the size of a quarter. This spider would have eaten those ones for a snack.
So after I get over my initial shock, I back away and stand where I can't see it anymore while Liana and I discuss wut to do (neither of us want to kill it, or even go near it) When I hear the front door open, and the familiar whistle of Dominique. So I walk to the top of the stairs and literally almost yell.
"DOMINIQUEEEEE" (picture my most shrill/freaked out voice) -me
"oui? ca va?"-him
"euhhh il est une araignee"-me
"quoi?"-him as he heads up to me anyway
"une araignee...uhm...spider?!"-me
"ohhh he he he une araignee"-him (isn't that what I said?!? lol)
then he proceeds to go to said spider and I refused to follow him fully ready to book it downstairs if this thing moves.(or eat dominique) and from what Liana tells me he poked it with a screwdriver, and at that point our near flat, huge disgusting NOT friend, got all big and leggy and alert. This is when I could hear Dominique laughing and repeating "pauvre araignee, ahha pauvre spider" (franglais?) and he killed it, carried it down the hall and flushed it. RIP disgusting beast spider.
After this I said "merci" very sheepishly feeling foolish, and still scared. and he just simply laughed and told us to have a good night.
Don't think I'm justified on my freakout? disgusting. Liana googled French house spiders (apparently what our beast was) and they are on AVERAGE 3 inches in legspan, but can get 4 inches or bigger.
So now all I'm thinking is that this sucker had little babies, and you know spiders, they have hundreds of them at a time. and each of these beasts will be 2 inches in legspan as babies, and will only grow bigger. Baby french spiders could eat our large spiders for lunch and still have room for more( a short american girl for instance.)
I will now spend more time than I will admit staring at every surface I pass and being paranoid that a creepy disgusting creature will come out and crawl on me.

Chocolate Wasted

So I clicked on my blogger dashboard today to see what everyone has been posting and realized my last post to the world was last friday, sooo I suppose I can let you all in on what I've been up to (not much)

Saturday, Liana and I spent the day not doing tons until early afternoon, when Chantal and Dominique invited us to the Chocolate Show with them. Basically it's a rotary sponsered event that is all about chocolate, they had different chocolatiers with booths set up, they had fruit kebabs dipped in chocolate, and a fashion show. Liana and I roamed around admiring and sampling different things, and everytime we turned around someone new was talking to Chantal n Dom. Man, our host parents are like the popular kids in high school. Does that make us cool by proxy?
After we had finished exploring and admiring, and getting slightly chocolate wasted, Chantal and Dom took us to the top of the building we were in, which had a really sweet view of Angers (and we were across the river, so you could see beaucoup )
Once we were home, Leah, Megan and Nikki came over to plan some spring break stuff, and we managed to get a game plan, and our flights booked. We have a 2 week spring break starting the second weekend of april, and our plan is to go to Marseille, Cagliari, Rome, and Brussels. We will be arriving in Rome on Easter sunday, and Idk if im more worried or excited about being near the Vatican on Easter. crowds?!

Nothing much has happened since then, until today.
about halfway through my shower this morning I hear Chantal say my name but obv. I'm showering so I'm not about to reply...As soon as I turn the water off, I hear the doorbell ring, and immediately think "she left and my package is here" Well, I didn't dry off fast enough, but that was exactly what it was...I now have to pick up my package tomorrow from the post office. Oh and about halfway back up the stairs I realized the house alarm was going off, and getting louder by the second. (wtf!) so I turned it off and went upstairs. Chantal and I passed eachother on my way to meet the girls, and she told me the alarm company called her saying it was going off, but that someone shut if off with the right code. Uhm yep, that was me. I guess when she called my name, and I didn't reply she thought I was gone, even though she mentioned hearing the shower running...weirdo. so she left and set the alarm. When I came downstairs it triggered it to go off..n well you know the rest. She thought it was hilarious, and I still don't fully understand french humor. (Liana has a suspicion that Chantal likes embarrassing us)
We have been having some pretty nice weather so far this week, so today Nikki, Leah, Liana and I had a picnic in a small park we found. The sky was clear and blue, for once the wind was laying low, so it felt about 60 or more degrees out. We all layed in the grass talking and eating (and drinking some champagne ) for literally hours. about 20 minutes before class we got up, and made it to class, but Liana and I were feeling very lethargic and well..slightly buzzed so class was horrible. It was only an hour but oh mon dieu, It felt like 4. (the class was lit) she has a habit of making us read aloud, which honestly is a pet peeve of mine. like...give us reading for homework, and use class to discuss/explain said reading, but nope. and guess who got stuck reading about a page of this stupid book out loud? yup. me. I don't think there was anything harder to focus on than reading french aloud off of a page when I was sun-drunk (and maybe a little champagne drunk) but I made it thru, and managed to pronounce it all at lease 90% right.
after this I met up with my traduction partner, where we finished our hw of translating (i kid you not) Hakuna Matata lyrics. Then I came home to find that Liana had been sleeping since class got out. (lol no more day-drinking for us) I did some homework, we made a very healthy meal of boxed mac n cheese and I came upstairs, only to have Mozart bark n moan downstairs...so we opened the door n he followed us upstairs, and slept outside my bedroom door for about an hour. Right now he has moved down the hall, to the top of the stairs and seems to be waiting for Chantal and Dom to get home. (they went out, and she looked fancy lol)

I can't wait to get the package tomorrow from my parents, and am very thankful for the few emails I've received from various people telling me what they're up to. I miss little connections with everyone and it means a lot to know you all still care and remember I still exist ;)

Sidenote: I've become very attached to Angers and while I miss home, I can already tell it's going to be hard for me to adjust to life back home in June. I love my cute, historical, and beautiful city, and am very blessed to be here, and cannot believe the time is passing as quickly as it is.

Apparently I'm Dutch and look light a smoker...

So Saint Patrick's Day started out very chill and sort of a bummer. It was cold (and has stayed this way) and I was all pumped about it, made sure I wore green, actually straightened my hair, etc...and then I get to school and was underwhelmed. The only people wearing green were Americans, and let me tell you the ones I saw were not in any shape to be in school (if you know wut I mean)So I walked to class and felt a little better when my American friends where also in the spirit, but in a much less drunk way.
Class was long, and boring, and oh my gah my oral test in langue was kill-me awful. I didn't really understand what was going on, and was supposed to tell why phrases in front of me were false, but to me they seemed true. ick. I'm not looking forward to getting that grade back.
The funniest part of classes was getting to traduction and Adrien pointing to his shirt and being all excited that he had green on for us. Then he handed us an assignment he wants us to do in pairs of two, and what are we translating this time you ask? Hakuna Matata...as in the Disney Song. oh lord. as if this isn't enough, Adrien played a video of it for our class and would laugh at it randomly. (homeboy loves himself some lion king)
After class Liana and I baked a tarte crust, and literally took rando items we had in the fridge and cupboard and made a delish dinner out of it. on the tarte we put a layer of cream fraiche (basically sour cream) diced ham, diced onion, sun dried tomatoes, shredded emmental cheese, parmesan cheese, and sliced(boiled first) potatoes. It was probably one of the best things we've made since being here.
We decided that we should at least go out for a little while, so after getting ready, (and sending some goofy pictures to amanda) we headed out. Now at first I was thinking, okay, clearly someone was mistaken and tonight isn't going to be comparable to St.Patty's day at CMU. Liana and I bought some beer and walked around with it, where we then started seeing the shit-show that became Angers last night. Every irish bar was nuts, packed and loud. There were more people in the streets than I've seen since I've been here, and all of them were shitty-wasted.
We sat down to finish our beers while people watching, and were approached by a guy who asked if I had a lighter, I said no, and he was like "oh you're not french, did you understand my question?" yes, asshole I can comprehend french, that still doesn't change my possession (or lack of) a lighter.  wutever. they left us alone after that and we were crossing the street to people watch on Bressigny/head home, when a guy started calling out to me saying something about beer. I gave him a dirty look and he asked if I was french. I didnt reply and he goes "oh, okay. Are you american?" me-"......" him-"are you dutch?!", at this point Liana and I crossed the road, and he did not. and I never answered his question.
Our walk home was eventful. sort of. We saw many girls act stupid (including one french girl speaking bad english to americans telling them shes tall and that's why she isn't as drunk as them---I beg to differ sweetheart) We also saw guys falling over themselves, beers being spilled (in the street) and girls lighting cigarettes only to drop them a second later and search to grab it. Bressigny was nothing but a packed shit show of drunk people sporting hats that said "Saint Patricks Day" on them. After passing the bar scene, Liana and I walked the rest of the way home feeling giggly and happy and she spent it mocking the way I say bagel and Oregon, and by this, I mean she kept repeating both words over and over again, in different scenarios, until neither of us were even sure how to pronounce them the right way anymore.
Today was sort of uneventful at the start. My langue test ...I could have taken that thing drunk and been fine, so I should have allowed myself more than one guinness last night, but oh well, better safe than sorry, right?

I took a longgggggggg nap after class, cut about 2...maybe 3 inches of hair off (my bangs)...n yes I did it....pic later? then met Leah in town.
Liana and Nikki met us after they were out of class, and we spent the better part of the afternoon watching Leah try on wedding dresses(we weren't allowed to take pics or I would have!) I also bought myself some macaroons and Liana finally found an eyemask for sleeping.
Now we plan to spend the night watching aimless movies on my laptop.
Hope you enjoyed this random (and hopefully entertaining) update.

She know's the difference between enjoying life and temporary make believe but she is a master of both

So today was the opposite of what I do in the states. I skipped class. Not because I was tired, or on accident, or for any amazing reason like travel excuses. I skipped because I hate that class, it's boring, and the sun was out, the wind was down, and the sky was blue. My only wednesday class happens to be that one, and at some point after returning my library book and wandering town wasting time, I decided I wasn't going to go. I don't plan to make this a habit, and I felt (still do) guilty about doing it, and as an after effect I came home and did piles of homework for about two hours, including...shoot me now...traduction. Which I'm sure I checked over a bunch, looked up words in both a dictionary and on word reference, and I'm betting I still get it back covered in red pen telling me yet again to use a dictionary. ugh.

Not tons to update on other than the fact that all I do is worry about my grades here, I get things back and feel nothing but disapointment. I miss the feeling of hard work paying off and getting that 'A' in the states. I miss being able to feel I am doing well and progressing, right now I am stuck in a rut of not getting any better at the language, and my continuous mediocre grades don't help calm my nerves about this.

Bad things:
-Feeling left out of things from home even though I was programmed to expect this. It doesn't make it easier when it starts to happen.
-Allergies...or something. I'm blaming the pollution of Paris on the fact that I've been disgusting feeling since I got there(and came back) and am hoping a nice weekend of rest will force it to go away.
-I desperately miss my nose ring and severely am considering getting it redone while over here.
-I also have yet to find shampoo where my hair doesnt feel gross n less clean than b4 I washed it. I got new stuff today from monoprix, and am hoping (fingers crossed) that this does the trick.
-Also..i need a haircut. my bangs are too long, and nothing is laying right so I pull my hair up all the time.

Good things:
-I tried a macaroon from a place in town that Patrick told me to try, and it was amazing, so I take back what I previously said about them being gross. It appears that when bought from the right place, they can taste like flakey vanilla-y amazing-ness. (and oddly like ice cream)
-The sun was out all day today n feeling/seeing it is just beyond words important to me.
-my mom sent my boots from home and I seriously cannot wait to have them in my posession again.
-Chantal invited Liana and I to go to some sort of Chocolate expo with them on Saturday afternoon, and she said something about seeing a fashion show where the clothes are made of chocolate...if they give out samples I am most definitely interested.

In between good and bad:
-I forgot my camera today and it was the first day in a while that I wanted it. I saw some really pretty spring buds on a tree when I was walking, and we had lunch at a cute little italien/pizza place and it was adorable....I wanted to take pictures of the food...but alas i will next time...promise.
-skipping lit, but we already discussed this little piece of goodness, so we won't mention it anymore
-I am fighting the urge to chop all of my hair off again into a pixie cut. I keep thinking how much easier it would be, and how much I love it. But the logic part of me knows I want long flowing hair(which at this rate will take YEARS), and I want to not look like a boy at jenelles wedding (that is of course unless Tim finally persuades her to let me wear a tux) and in that case I will gladly chop my hair for the cause ;)

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and honestly I'm not sure what to expect here, but I plan on sporting some green, and heading to class. (of which I'm not finished with until 6) after this I plan on studying (langue test 8am friday..ugh) and then heading out to wander the streets and drunk people watch with Liana (watch drunk people, not drunkenly watch people...I live in the country of creepers, I didn't become one of them)

anyway, that's all I have for tonight folks, Have a good night

disclaimer to all my college friends: Please be safe 2moro and don't do anything stupid. Have fun, hell, have a drink for me, but don't drink yourselves into a hospital.

Thanks and Goodnight =)

A weekend in Paris; a novella by Amy Allemon

 This post is a doozy; it's long and detailed but I promise to be as entertaining as I can be.

Okay So the last time I updated was before taking a few tests, and such. Update on that? The lit test was okay I guess, I felt like I could at least answer 90% of the questions, and in French standards that’s doing well…she plans to hand them back to us 2moro, so time will tell. Phonetics tests are annoying. You never feel like you are counting syllables right due to how French people slur everything together, and all that fun stuff, but overall I think I did okay.  The history test actually wasn’t that bad, even though I was super worried about it. (due to my lack of capability to memorize information, ESPECIALLY dates) 2moro I have my traduction test, and I’m sort of feeling ‘what-ever’ about it. Then I have a break in tests until Thursday. So that’s a one day break…yay… oh well I’ll take it. So that was the boring stuff…still reading? Good. Pushing through the boring will get you everywhere =)

I’m going to separate my weekend by day to make it easier to follow my thought patterns cuz’ I know I can be sort of all over the place. Okay…focus..right weekend stuff.

FRIDAY

Woke up at the crack of dawn feeling tired and not at all in the mood for class, but alas, I went. 8am’s will never, I repeat NEVER feel easier. Okay so after class got out, Liana and I trecked home, did some last minute packing, I wrote Chantal a note telling here we’d be back on Sunday, and off we went. Now the only other time I had been in the train station (or near it) was when Chantal picked a very jet-lagged me up from it roughly 2 months ago. So our train station…is sort of huge, nothing extraordinary but still rather large. Anywayyy I bought my ticket and asked the dude if Liana could buy one next to me, and he was all “ah oui, c’est pas grave”, cept it was. He sold me the last ticket on my car, and realized it when he went to book Lianas, oh well, we rode in separate parts of the train for the ride to Paris. I sat next to a guy attached to his macbook and watching Marie Antoinette on it, which made me a-question his sexuality and more importantly b-want to watch it with him.

We arrived in Paris roughly an hour and 40 minutes later feeling excited, but rather confused. Montparnasse’s station…is huge. I’m talking almost as confusing at first glance as CDG was. Both Liana and I had guidebooks for Paris with maps, and neither of them had anything further south than the train station, soooo we had to use my hand written mapquest directions, along with subway maps to try finding our way to our hotel. After much wandering, and backtracking, we made it, and were pleasantly surprised to find that while our room was tiny, it was in fact a legit hotel room with our own bathroom and a tv that we didn’t end up really using, but it was there.

After unloading our heavy backpacks in our room, we departed feeling lighter and happier. Hello, we were in paris?! We found a patisserie and got some snacks, of which we munched on while wandering through Montparnasse without a map. We kept seeing small glimpses of the Eiffel tower, and would follow were we thought would take us there, and eventually, we did make it there. This was actually one of my favorite moments of the weekend; maybe because I wasn’t yet exhausted , but I like to think it was because we didn’t use a map at all, and found the Eiffel Tower on our own. Anyway. We immediately were ambushed by people trying to sell us anything from keychains, to braided bracelets, all of which we said “non, merci” and kept walking. Now, during the day these guys kind of just walk away when you say no, but …keep reading.

Okay, so we took a bunch of pics of the tower, and ended up crossing the Seine and walking along it taking pictures and enjoying the view. We had time to kill before we had to meet up with Leah and Anna, so we took our time wandering. We ended up looking down upon a Fashion shoot being done. And I’m not saying it was a bunch of egotistical frenchies taking photos of themselves. Pas de tout. This was real life models posing in very high heels, and very sheer clothing. I took a few pics of it cuz’ it seemed bizarre.

After this we walked and walked and walked. Lol. We took pictures of the Pont neuf III which is a very very old bridge that crosses the Seine, and is the bridge that leads to the Champs-Elysees. It was beautiful, but I think my favorite bridge was found after this. I don’t know the name of it, but it was COVERED in padlocks. And each lock had names or initials or sayings or designs. They were artzy, and romantic. Plain and exotic. Cute and weird. I just thought the idea of this was adorable, and would very much one day like to place my own lock on this bridge.

We planned to meet Leah and Anna at the Louvre, but they were running late, and we were running early. Sooo Liana and I wandered the Tuilleries, took pictures of the outside of the Louvre, and found a street filled with cheap souvenirs, and a starbucks! After we bought possibly too many postcards, we made our way back to the Louvre and met up with Leah and Anna. A flash of our Visa’s and we were in Fo Free =) (if you are under 26 and a resident of the European Union, you get into gov. owned facilities for free) We spent a long time seeing paintings, sculptures and artifacts I never thought I’d ever actually see in real life, and enjoying every feet-killing minute of it.

After this we ate dinner at a very cute little italien brasserie, where I had some sort of tomato ravioli, and it was amazing. It was getting late, so we all hopped on the subway, and Liana and I transferred to Montparnasse. The walk from the station to our hotel was maybe 15 minutes, but both of us were in skirts and it was sort of late (not by france standards but oh well) and literally just as I’m telling Liana nothing sketchy has happened yet, a man approaches us speaking in French n taunting us. He kept trying to get us to look at him or respond, and followed us for a good block or so, all the while getting closer to us. He ended up sort of tapping Liana’s arm and asking if she wanted a kiss, at which point she switched to my other side and he started to walk close to me. At this point I was irritated and had my fists clenched ready to deck this MF-er. He then stopped walking and started calling after us saying that we were sluts(among other things). Thanks douchebag, but I don’t think me not wanting some gross sleazy old man to hit on me qualifies me as a slut. We had no further problems, and fell asleep almost instantly at our hotel.

Which brings me to…

SATURDAY

We woke up bright and early to head to Versailles. We ended up finding a metro line closer to our hotel than the Montparnasse one, and decided to use it due to the occurrence from the previous night. We took this to the stop close to Notre Dame, and got off to switch to the RER line that would take us to Versailles. This train was a double-decker, and was sort of odd, and the only way to describe it is if the metro and the SNCF trains had a baby, it would be the RER…plus a double deck. Anyway.

We got to Versailles, and stopped at Starbucks and I got a Chai Tea Latte(omg I miss strong American coffee that isn’t shot size) and it was amazing! After this we got a little confused on how to actually get to the Castle grounds, but quickly figured it out and made it. Quick show of the Visa and we’re in. (god I love that)

No description I can give will do this place justice. It was huge, immaculate, and covered in plated gold. Not to mention that the grounds themselves could probably hold the population of the town I grew up in. We walked through the Palace, and made our way through the gardens. We stopped by the Grand Canal and had some sandwiches, then we made the long treck to the Petit-Trianon. (where Marie Antoinette lived 90% of the time.) Okay, so this one wasn’t as big as the palace, by any means, but it was still amazing, and I was in awe the entire time to be walking the halls that Marie Antoinette once walked. It was probably the best/weirdest feeling ever. (I have been sort of mildly obsessed with her since I was 15)  Anyway, after this we wandered through the ‘farm’ parts that Marie Antoinette kept, which was basically just animals, but very cute ones! (minus the poorly groomed sheep)We wandered through the small village that M.A. used to frequent, (which was/is owned by the palace, not a village where ‘peasants’ lived) and it was…adorable. At this point my camera pretended to be dead(it wasn’t dead later..) and so I took no more pictures at Versailles. We ended up wandering through a lot more garden, finding something I’m sure I could look up the name of but I’m lazy(it looked like a hugely ornate gazebo) and then wandering on to the Grand Trianon. From here we were beyond exhausted and the weather was turning bad, and rainy. So we headed to the main palace, and exited.

From here, all 4 of us took the RER but Liana and I bid Anna and Leah adieu at the Eiffel tower and got off there. We wanted to get night pictures of it, so we wandered in random shops and got dinner. (which wasn’t nearly as good as our pasta the night before) It still wasn’t dark enough for good pictures, so we wandered the area surrounding the tower, and even took the stairs by the Seine down to walk right next to it. We eventually ended up wanting to sit and maybe eat something sweet (and use a non-gross bathroom) so we went to a café and split Crème Brulee. (my first time having it, and oh mon dieu, it was delicious.)After this it was Dark enough to get pictures so we went back to the tower, and this time, the key chain men, and bracelet brothas were all about us, not to mention the guys with roses, and other random crap I didn’t want. Most still went away, but some followed closely by asking if we had boyfriends, and stupid annoying stuff like that. Harmless right? Seemingly, okay so we pass this one particular brotha who is trying to sell us his stupid keychains and we say “non” and keep walking, as we do, he mumbles something n Liana and I were 90% sure it was something vulgar, but didn’t know what it was, but to me it sounded like a puff of air. Liana later googled it and found out he was calling us whores in French. What is it with these stupid douchebags?

Anywayyy…It started to rain sort of heavily, so we headed to the metro, and as we’re ascending the escalator to our train, I see a sign that sucks the breath out of my lungs. Our metro stop was the site of the Rafle during WWII.(Vel D’Hiv…google it if you haven’t heard about it) I pointed it out to Liana and we both read the sign and I spent a big chunk of the night thinking about it, and all of those people. It is incredibly sad and sort of overwhelming.

We got off at the metro we took that morning, and had 0 problems walking home this time(but it was considerably earlier than the night before)We both fell into a deep sleep due to our very much throbbing feet.

Are you still reading this? My god, you’re awesome.

SUNDAY

We woke up early to get ready, and pack up, checking out of the hotel went smoothly, and we were out and on the metro heading to the Arc de Triomphe before 9:30. We made it to the Arc just as it opened (10am) and were thoroughly baffled of how to cross the circle without dying. We then saw that there were subway stairs but could not find the ones by us to take us under and across. We wandered almost a full circle before we found them, and descended. From here we bought apple pastries and ate them at the bottom of the Arc taking in the crazy view of the traffic circle.

With a wave of our passport, we were given tickets, and proceeded to climb the 280? SPIRAL (narrow as hell) steps to the top, and man if my feet didn’t already hate me enough yet, they surely did at that point. The view was worth every aching blister. You see miles…well kilometers upon kilometers of Paris, and you can see Sacre Coeur along with the Eiffel tower, all the way down the Champs-Elysees, and a lot of other very amazing sights. It was well worth the hike up(and back down) all of those stairs.

After this we hopped a metro to Sacre Coeur and walked down a street that reminded me of Canal st. in NYC, people selling shit EVERYWHERE. (including bags, but not any that looked real enough to consider;) ) anyway. We climbed to the first level of this giant place and saw yet another photo shoot being done(I’m not kidding) this time there were male and female models, and they were posing in what looked to be hugely uncomfortable and high heels (the girls) and holding champagne chutes. As if this wasn’t enough, there was a man being followed by cameras, and paparazzi, along with some fans. We couldn’t figure out who he was, but don’t fret I still took a few close-ups of him ;) I might ask Chantal who he is(hopefully she’ll know!) 

Noteworthy: a lot of the metro platforms smell like pee, and we have seen people publicly urinating b4, so it didn't surprise us (much) when we saw a man peeing in the corner of Sacre Coeur, what did sort of surprise me was that after he peed in the corner he wiped his shoes off on his hands, and then sat on a bench, of which he fell off backwards and laughed. Drunk-ass french guy. REAL classy to be drunk at 11am on a Sunday in front of a very well known church...only in Paris.

We made it up a bunch more steps to the actual church part, and mass was in session so we didn’t get to take pictures of the inside, but let me tell you; it was amazing. You know that peaceful, yet very strong church smell of insents and…god? Lol Idk it was like that, only better. Plus it was warm and cozy, and I very much enjoyed the combo of the smell, the warmth, and the choir singing.

After this we quickly descended and got back on the metro to Pere Lachaise cemetery, which has a ton of famous(and others) people buried there. We didn’t have tons of time to kill, so we got maps, and found our way(after getting slightly lost) to Jim Morrison’s grave.  After this we wanted to find Oscar Wilde's grave, which was in the back, and we ended up getting lost a few times in the process of locating it. Oh well, we made it and this thing was COVERED in lipstick kisses. Seriously not sanitary. So after saying how incredibly unclean that is, I dare Liana to kiss it, while handing her my lipgloss. She of course accepts the challenge, and puckers up. Degoutant. But she seems to not have contracted any deadly diseases yet, only time will tell.

At this point our feet were pretty much donefor, and we had a train to catch, so we hopped the metro to Montparnasse and ended up buying first class tickets back to angers (it was the only seats left on the train that left at the time we wanted)

Upon getting off in Angers, it was raining, and sort of nasty out, but I still had that “ah” moment of ‘this is where I belong.’ I’ve had that moment at CMU after a busy weekend and this is the first time I had it in Angers. The feeling of “I’m glad to live here”

Well if any of you made it this far, I applaud you, and there you have it, my weekend in a not so short nutshell. I love and miss you all, and as always I suggest you check out the photos on my fb(I’m slacking on the photobucket account. SORRY!) 

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for what I'm sure will be a more uneventful week.

I've always heard it was possible to study...I've just never been any good at it.

Okay so there's not tons of interesting things happening in my life to report.

So the school has this rule, where we all have to take a test in each class before the 16th of March. That seems fine and dandy right? well, when you have 5 classes, and each of them pic a dif day..you also think, "sweet, I don't need to study for more than one a night"..that is until you realize they are all spread apart to be very inconvenient. I had two tests last week in Langue; oral and written (oral=we had to perform a skit...some things never change, written=two articles, answer questions about them) 2moro, I have a test over the poets we've discussed so far in litterature, and honestly when we asked her what to study, she gave us nothing, NOTHING to go off of, so Im re-reading notes, and wishing I had a highlighter, and praying for the best. (hence why I am home on the night of Mardi Gras)
Thursday I have a test in phonetics, that I am hoping will be the easiest of all the tests to come. We have to count syllables in words (which the french do this by vowels, and weirdly. ex: bien is one syllable here) and do other phonetically inclined things...
My next test isn't until Monday, but low and behold it is in History, which is going to be the one I panick about the most, because we have taken about 6 pages of notes for one chapter, and this lady means business with dates, names, places, the more specific knowledge the better.
Tuesday I will have a test in traduction, and honestly I don't think it'll be that bad, but who knows.
Thursday and Friday are two more langue tests; oral and written again (oral this time will be a listening exercise followed by us responding...and will take place in the language lab, the written I'm guessing will be similiar to before, but idk.

now I know this is all complaining, but deal with it. it's my blog and i'll complain if I want to ;)

So for the good things:
-Liana and I will be hopping a train (as long as we buy tickets soon..) on Friday late morning/early afternoon to Paris, where we will meet up with Leah, and her friend Anna. Friday will be spent exploring and being touristy, Saturday we plan on waking up early, and heading off on the RER to Versailles. =) Sunday we plan to head back fairly early to get in enough time to rest and study for history.
-the weather for the past few days has been Ah-Mazing. and by that I mean blue skies, and barely cloudy, cold at night, but it got probably close to 60*F today. This makes being in class kind of hard, but I'll manage.
-I've actually been able to sleep at night now. I think it's because I am dead tired by the time I lie down that it just happens, but I'm still averaging about 6 hours a night, which I am perfectly happy with for the time being.
-Getting a 16 on my written test in langue. =)
-Leah is engaged! Zach (her bf from home) flew to france for his spring break, and surprised her with the question on Saturday, and of course she said yes. The ring is beautiful, and they couldn't ask for a better place to spend the first week of their engagement together. Good luck to you both. =)

the weird:
-I wore zebra tights today with a black skirt and as I was walking home with Liana a random french guy passes us n goes "zebra" (except with french creeper accent it sounds more like zeh-brah..not zee-bra)
-my traduction prof wore a shirt that said "buzzkill" on it. and I couldn't help but thinking, yes, your class is. ;)

The sort of bad:
-French grading. Okay, it's not bad, but it's CONFUSING, and gives you a heart attack. I am starting to obsess over it, and have emailed my french adviser at home asking wut everything transfers back as, but to calm my nerves til I hear from him, Liana has sent me this:    http://www.consulfrance-miami.org/spip.php?article1171
-I hardly ever drink water here, mainly because I don't have a reusable water bottle, and there are 0 water fountains in France.
-I drink beer now, yes you read that right; now I'm not saying I will ever prefer it to the stuff I was used to before, but I can now tolerate it.(and I still very much prefer drinks like the pina colada I had the other night to celebrate Leah's engagement!)
-macaroons, Okay, I was told these these are the most delicious thing you'll ever taste, and maybe it's cuz I had no idea what to expect, but I tried one, and just...idk it wasn't my thing. maybe it's cuz I don't like sweets as much as the french seem to, but I'll stick to pain au chocolat thanks.

As always, I miss everyone at home, and this week I've been in a particular funk I'd rather get out of. I can't explain it very well, and won't bother boring you all with the details, but I promise to try looking on the bright side of everything, and when that fails, I promise to use the advice forever burned in my skull from cheerleading camp freshman year of high school "fake it til u make it" as in. pretend it's true, and eventually it will be....if only that worked on all marks of life.

a few deservable congratulations are in order:
-Leah and Zach, congrats on the new engagement, I am soooooo happy for you. Zach, it was nice meeting you this week, and Leah I can't wait to girl talk this topic up over drinks in paris. =)
-Jenelle, I'm very proud of you for not letting the job you are at affect you in a bad way, and now you will be starting a new (and hopefully better) one in just a matter of weeks. Congrats. I wish I were there to celebrate in a more official way with you.  Just stay out of ypsi ;)

one last thing; I haven't heard from a few of you lately, and would VERY much appreciate getting emails, constantly updating me. be mundane and boring, be exciting and elaborate. I don't care which one you are, just do it, type it out, and send it to me =)

Now it's back to studying (maybe)
Night.

Like the distance between the tips of your eyelashes to my glasses

I suppose I should let you all in on what's been going on in the past few days...but I will warn you, it is nothing exciting.
The week is done, and I still haven't found out how I did on my test in langue; which I'm finding out is the french way (delay. delay. delay.) I completed another time consuming traduction assignment, only to second guess it as soon as it left my fingertips. Other than that, life as school has been routine, and frankly a little boring.
Last night the girls and I went to Soft (a bar) and had a few drinks, nothing too extreme, except for the fact that it takes me close to nothing to 'feel it', so while my girls were fine, I was holding back giggles, and walked home feeling warm, and very much not tired.
That feeling quickly changed to hating myself, when my alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. but I will assure you, it was due to the fact that I am not, AM NOT a morning person, not because I had drank the night before. Alas, class went by horrifically slow, but once it was over, I came home to shower and nap.(which was fantastic)
I spent close to an hour wandering the streets of Angers, by myself, until Liana was out of class and met me. From here we got stuff to make spinach dip and headed home. During our stroll home, a familiar looking guy started a convo with Liana and I, and we quickly learned that he worked at the food place we grabbed lunch from on Thursday (Tchips) He told us that he wants to go to America(they all seem to want that) and that our french was really good (we only said like 3 words in french to the guy) but alas, we found out his name is Levon, and he was on his way to driving school.
Tonight, Nikki came over and Liana, Nikki and I made pinapple + bacon french bread pizza, which was delish. Liana also made spinach dip using cream cheese, and shredded Parmesan, this was also very good.(and we have more than half of it in our fridge still) When we were just about done with dinner, Kat, Megan and Wayne(Kat & Megan go to cmu with me, Wayne used to but now teaches English to kids in a small city in Bretagne) stopped in to chat, and ended up staying over until close to 11.Overall it was a nice, relaxing night.

Random funnies about this week:
-traduction ...some things don't translate well. explanation? two phrases come to mind. one was the word "poop" in english, and I'm not kidding. Okay, well among many other phrases one student suggested the use of "merde"...which is the french equivalent to "shit". My prof turned an embarrassing shade of pink and explained that it was not a good word to use. Next, was "do not kiss" and another student suggested "ne baisez pas"....which gently translates in English to "don't f***", which Prof Adrien also wrote on the board, only to point out that it was a-wrong and b-baddddd. He was redder than a tomato after explaining this one.
-I feel extremely young here. Most of the people I hang out with are only a year older, but especially tonight, when we were talking...I just felt very young and out of the loop. (wayne is 28, Megan and Nikki are 22/21 [i think?] and Kat and Liana are both 20) in retrospect I guess It isn't a huge gap, but it felt like one tonight.
-Liana bought wine tonight that was a sort of champagney-rose. and when asked to describe how it tastes she said "it tastes pink"...not understanding, we all tried it, and strangely..pink is exactly how it tasted. bubbly, and cute, and flowery...pink.
-Bathrooms in bars.(description to follow is of Soft's bar) oh mon dieu. okay. here's a lovely picture painted for you, ready? probably not, but here we go: first, u must push the door open from the outside, then you see a mirror and two sinks, hand dryer, soap, wutever, normal...right? kay but then there's two stalls, one of which I've yet to see opened, or anyone in it. the other, the handle is not broken off, but practically, so u have to maneuver it closed...and here's the fun part. directly across from the two stalls are urinals, in the open. and One might think, okay, but no guy would walk in when a girl is standing right there and just, you know..go. Except this is Europe, so anything is possible. bad enuff? the handle on the door to leave is broken and u must pull it open using the string they tied to it. le sigh.

Found that funny? want something else to crack you up?
regard: Wanna Love You-Shane Hawley

It's not always rainbows and butterflies, it's compromise that move us along

Today is the first day since I've been here that all day I've questioned whether or not I'm cut out for this. I have been having a lot of stuff from home to deal with, whether it be from various friends, or family, which just makes me want to physically be there, only I know it's not possible. I haven't slept much since I've been here. I have no idea what the problem is, but even on days with no alarm set, when I stay up as late as possible, and take benedryl...I still wake up 5-6 hours later. Most days I'm lucky to stay solidly asleep for 4 hours. Put the lack of sleep with the 18 credits of doom, and you get me questioning what I'm capable of. more of an explanation?
sigh. I was up late focusing on anything but the test I had today, and then proceeded to get about 3.5 hours of sleep(not because I didn't have time, just cuz' I suck at this whole sleeping thing) started the day feeling horribly tired and panicky about my test, and happened to get a traduction paper back that I worked my ass off on...and let's just say it wasn't pretty. He gave our class a spiel on how we all keep making stupid mistakes and we shouldn't be. Only...I looked that thing over and over and my roommate helped me with a few things, and still, I failed it.more than failed it. (in my defense, the english he had us translating, was not english people use, and it was very poorly written in english. How can I be expected to translate crappy english into beautiful french.give.me.a.freakin.break.) After this I was pretty much all doom and gloom. I had pasta with Gabby and Liana, and they tried to keep my mind off of everything. fast forward through more class, and we get to my test that I studied for 5 minutes before class. It really wasn't that bad, but it was time consuming, the thing I had the most trouble with was when we had to take sentences from our text and say them in a different way, without repeating words used in the text. In english, you think; sure piece of cake...in french; not so much. Oh well, I did my best and that's all I can really do.
I do however notice that while I take some time to properly respond in french, I can comprehend it without paying attention anymore. Before I came here I'd have to be actively watching my profs every move to make sure I got what was being said, now I can daydream and somehow catch every word as if it were in English. So while I know today was hard, and I am feeling very down on myself and my capabilities, I know that I am progressing in the language, and days like this will (hopefully) be far and few.
Good things;
-Liana and I cooked dinner last night. and I only mention this because a lot of people are curious about what I'm eating here. okay, so we made salad, with mustard-vinaigrette dressing, and sun dried tomatoes. Our main dish was baguette pizza, with white (bechamel) sauce, emmental (shredded) cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach. We followed dinner with delish dessert; some sort of vanilla bean-citrus-y thing for Liana, and a raspberry (very hard to eat) wafery-moussey thing for me. All of this was drank with Pear Cidre. =)
-Forever21 has a EU site and its like 6 euros for shipping, so If I can find cute clothes, it'll be worth the shipping cost.
-My friends here are amazing. All of them have been more than supportive and helpful with me today, and given my mood I know that can't be the easiest. I try to be upbeat and remind myself that I am in France, this is my dream, and that does make me feel bad about being so incredibly worried and down on myself.

I don't want to end on a crappy note, but for fear of boring you to tears with anything else, I'll just give you this(sorry for those who don't like this sort of thing, but then again, you don't have to watch it, and it's my blog afterall):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V45pd3Y4XjA