15 days, 6 cities, 5 girls, Can you hande the excitement?

Okay, so as promised I will give you one last update before embarking on what I expect to be a very busy but amazing spring break.

This week has been anything but chill. We have had a lot of assignments, and packing, last minute shopping trips, etc. not to mention we were finally given sheets of paper telling us when each of our final exams will be (holy crap I don't want that to come! exams means it's over)
Highlights of the week?
Not much to report from monday n tuesday...typical boring-classes. Wednesday I only have lit, and Liana and I made the educated decision to skip it knowing my friend Heather was kind enough to grab extra papers for us, and promised to let me copy notes we missed. We took the day to do last minute shopping, Liana got the suncreen shes been needing, and I managed to find some tank tops that weren't sprawled with words of english all over them.
Thursday was actually a really nice day,so I'll actually spend time on this one: We got our tests back in phonetics and I didn't do horribly(those tests are wicked frustrating. think writing everything phonetically. and for one portion we jus listen to her speak n write how many syllables it was. yeah sounds fun, right?) After that class we had from 11-1:30 of break time, so Liana, Gabi, Lien and I went to a place in town called tappas and it was really interesting. You order like 4 mini dishes and get salad and water, along with 2 mini dessert dishes. It's a formule for like 11E and we left feeling stuffed and satisfied with it.
After this we went to langue and I was pretty much bored out of my mind for 2 hours. Our teacher put us in groups of 2 to do an orale expression assignment, and my partner was Chinese. We discussed everything except the assignment, but only reverted back to it when the prof was close to us (haha comme d'habitude)
During my break before traduction I sat on a picnic table with some friends just laughing n talking about spring break. =) Traduction is honestly my favorite class. We all sort of get along and laugh at eachother so it makes mistakes feel less embarrassing, plus the prof is like...our age...so it's not as intimidating.

After class I only had time to run home, and change my clothes before heading back out with Liana to meet Nikki. We then wandered down towards the Chateau in search for Liens foyer...we found it, but not all that easily. Why were we going to Lien's u ask? well, about 14 of us had dinner there. We all sat around a big table talking and eating for literally hours. It was sort of great. As people were leaving, they would each hug us and say goodbye and to have a good spring break. This doesn't sound like much, but it was amazing; lol I haven't had much physical contact in a long time so hugs were greatly appreciated. At about 11:30 we decided to head to Matt Murpheys (a bar) and have a drink. The entire group didn't go, but a lot of us did, and it was nice to have a large group of us again. On our walk home, Liana and I finalized our decision to not go to langue in the morning. (everyone was on vacation anyway, so our profs basically told us they wouldnt be giving/doing work) I slept in a little bit, which was nice.
Today we sort of were all over the place.
I'll leave the boring details out, but just know we are all now fully printed, shopped, prepared,packed and excited =)

 Speaking of packing;
It feels weird to pack up only a little of my things, and know that I'll be coming back here. It's home, and while that's comforting, it's also sort of odd.
So I laid out everything I wanted with me, and eliminated things I didn't need ,I then put it all in my backpack and BIG surprise. it didn't fit. So I took out my flats, and my straightener, and my book ....and then I barely could fit it all. le sigh.
I was just gonna take Tim Guns advice and 'make it work', but I very shyly ended up asking Chantal if I could borrow a bigger bag from her. Oh mon dieu! My host mom is the most amazing woman on the planet (exaggeration? maybe, but shes def getting a mothers day present now haha) okay so she made me follow her to the creepy basement haha where she holds up Dom's sports bag (duffle) and asks if i want her to empty it for my use. I say "I think that's too large..and maybe a backpack would be better" (in french) and she rummages in a few things n pulls out a largeeeee backpacking sack n asks if it's big enough. Je pense que oui. haha I said yes, and took it from her to examine it. Thing.is.Huge! Liana spider checked it for me, and I packed all of my things inside, and it's only about half-full. I now have my flats and straightener, and am debating on the book. I won't pack any more clothes though, even if I really really want to. I'm using self control and saying no.
Okay so after all of this, Liana calls me into the hall because she sees orange liquid on one of the hall tables. n theres a glass filled with it too. We immediately think Manon got into something, and realize it was the orange table cleaner...so we plan to clean it up , but we then find it on the bathroom floor, and then I stuck my hand on the main table in the hall and it was all over that as well. Liana and I had no choice but to tell Chantal, and the three of us cleaned it up. Chantal was worried Manon drank the cleaner, but she said she didn't, so It was all okay, but it was all over the place...Chantal didn't really yell at her or anything, which was surprising to me. As much as my grandma loves me, she would have smacked the hell out of me for doing that.
oh well,
2moro I leave just before noon for Nantes, and from there we start out journey, I won't be back until the 30th of April, so I am 99% sure you won't see another post until after that. I promise to post a separate blog per city, and to tell you as much as I can remember about each one.
Have a great couple of weeks guys, and I will write soon=)

p.s. I will have my ipod and cell phone with me, so where I can connect to internet I will check my email (with ipod) and such, so feel free to email me, and if you have my cell phone number you can text me, but I'm not fully sure how that works. (my mom does it though, soooo idk.)
until next time <3
XOXO
-A

Angers, Je t'aime

So I guess it's been a busy week as I haven't updated you all on what I've been up to?! Sort of. I wouldn't exactly say my life is busy and jam-pack full of adventures, but this week I was busy most nights planning spring break, or spending time with my girls.
I will give the highlights of the week I guess...
Chantal left for a few days, and suddenly returned with children in tow...yep the grandbabies are here again...and I have a feeling they'll be here til' we leave for spring break. Oh well.
I can't remember much of the week, so that probably tells you how important it was...ha.
We'll start with thursday events, since that is about as far back as I can remember...sorry guys.
Okay, so Thursday class was rather tedious but okay overall, my langue professor was sick, but instead of canceling class as is par for u.s. universities...we had a sub. c'est quoi ca? zuit alors! oh well, she was nice and I ended up feeling rather bad for her, as our class is very much in a pre spring break lull and did not cooperate very well with answering her...picture eager grad student subbing in for a class and asking questions and in reply she gets......silence.....yeah, hence the feeling bad. Oh well. In traduction, we got our papers back and I got a 16.5 which pretty much made my day...or week. We also are all such a small class that we laugh and have a pretty good time during it, which makes me love the class. That night Liana and I hadn't exactly planned on participating in activities, but Cassie called us from town and was alone, so being the girls we are, we put some pants on, and headed to meet her at a bar. We were soon joined by Cassie's friend Miao, and had a lot of fun doing girl-talk and just laughing. After a little while we spotted our friend Alex, and he sat with our ever growing table. Of course we were at Soft, which is basically a CIDEF hangout, so not much later we were greeted by a group of students from class, of whom we knew about 4, but we all relocated to a larger location and spent the better part of a half hour talking together and laughing. That was when Liana and I realized what time it was, and decided to be at least slightly responsible and head home. I can honestly say that the nights spent at soft with my girls, and whoever else shows up, prove to be the best ones I've had here.
Friday consisted of a very lethargic me going to class only to find our sub still in tow. Poor substitute grad student got an even worse response during our 8am friday class, mainly because not many students showed up, and the ones who did....well let's just say I'm pretty sure all of us had either a coke or a coffee in front of us. After class I spent the better part of two hours making a powerpoint on Quebec, and the difference between Quebecois french, and France french. Heather and I will be presenting it to our langue class on Tuesday. Which brings me to lunchtime. I met Heather to show her the powerpoint, and get some lunch. We went to a small cafe near the galerie lafayette, and sat on the steps eating it. The sandwhich was great, the sun was out, and it was hotttt. We ended up talking on the steps about everything n anything for close to 2 hours before walking back towards school. (Heather had class still to attend)
Later on, Liana ,Nikki and I met up to buy our tickets from Marseille to Nice, and back...which was a feat in itself. The man was grumpy, and we ended up buying a ticket from nice back to the airport in marseille....oops! We plan on going back wednesday to correct this problem, and to purchase our tickets to Nantes for Saturday! Liana and I also need to buy our tickets from brussels to home.
After this, we wanted to get out of the heat and enjoy some girl talk, so we grabbed some dinner at Mcdoner and I managed to get basically a glorifed grilled cheese, and it was amazing. =) We also got some ice cream out of the deal and it was also pretty spectacular to have due to the hot weather we are experiencing right now.
Saturday we headed to the market and met up with Leah and Nikki. We bought strawberries, a few baguettes, some bottles of water, two dif types of cheese, and some sort of coconut cookie things (YUM). We packed it all up, and hopped a bus across the river. From there we hiked our way back to the lac de maine. We got a little turned around during our hike and ended up plopping down in the middle of the woods to have our picnic.
It was sort of spectacular though, because the meadow we were in was quiet, and there were 0 people there besides us. We also saw some bunnies jumping through. Once finished with our rather amazing lunch, we hiked to the actual lake, and not 30 seconds after spotting the beach, we had dropped our bags, stripped off our shoes and ran for the sand....which was sort of gritty.
My poor feet are not used to being barefoot, and are becoming more and more abused while in france, and they didn't appreciate the gritty sand...and the water smelled...off. sort of like cow poop...weird. We ended up sprawling out in the grass but in the sun and laying for a while.
This would have been great had a woman not sat in front of us on the sand....and proceeded to take off her dress. Okay, now this wasn't the worst thing ever, because men in France prance about in speedos like us seeing their junk on display isn't a big deal or anything...uhm. ew. anyway. So miss-I-love-my-body-how-it-is then proceeded to finish taking off her dress....revealing her thong bathing suit bottom, and oh it gets...er...better? (not so much) She stripped off her top. and then proceeded to rub lotion onto...them....for quite some time. After she finished with this, she kept rolling into different tanning positions and just letting it all show/hang out...ugh. culture shock 101.
I have a feeling maybe this was getting us ready for spring break and what we will experience while on the Mediterranean. Oh best part? Liana took my camera and snapped a photo of the lake...and miss-not-self-conscious.

After our long lake trip we went to monoprix and grabbed some supplies for dinner. Liana and I made chili and it was quite delicious if I do say so myself. We will be enjoying the leftovers for lunch tomorrow afternoon. I soon realized I was sunburnt (only slightly) and spent the rest of my night watching Burlesque online, and then heading to bed.

Today wasn't all that eventful, Liana, Nikki, and I got some drinks from the Spar, and sat in the Jardin des plantes for seriously hours just talking. it was lovely =) After this we ended up grabbing pasta and enjoying it in the jardin du mail. We spent quite a lot of time just sitting and talking today, and I can honestly say I am going to miss days like the ones I've been having in France lately.
I am slowly loving this place more an more and can honestly say I don't want to leave. I miss the people from home, but I can already tell Angers will forever hold a special place in my heart.

We're looking at the same moon.

This weekend wasn't spent doing anything particularly exciting, but I realized something; Angers has become home to me. I love that I live in a fairly large city, but have the comforts of a small one. That we have the option of busy streets and many people, or roaming the wilderness by a lake. I have gotten used to the flow of schoolwork, and class will be forever hard to wake up for, but it's becoming routine. I have made some friends here, who I know I will have a hard time leaving come June. Being in France in itself is a dream come true, and when I found out Angers was my destination, I'll admit I was less than thrilled to be in the Loire valley,but now I don't know if there's any place I'd rather be spending my study abroad time. We have just under two weeks until Spring Break, where I will be visiting some incredible places (Nantes-Nice-Marseille-Cagliari-Rome-Brussels)and after that I have a feeling time will pass very fast. This makes me sad that my time will be up so fast, but at the same time there are little things about home that I miss dearly and think that everyone takes for granted.
I will now proceed to list some of them to give you an idea of what I mean.

-That first day when it's barely warm enough to do so, when you roll the windows down on your car and cruise with the wind in your hair. Now anyone who knows me, knows that driving does not belong on my list of favorite things, but it is one of the things I find I sort of miss while here. I love walking everywhere and experiencing everything as the French do (slowly) but I also miss getting somewhere fast, and conveniently.

-Scrub clothes. I'm talking those jeans with so many holes, that are so worn out you are almost too embarrassed to wear them in public...almost. That paired with the hoodie that's lasted you longer than any relationship you've had. ;) The closest thing I brought like this with me from home is a tee from high school, and some soffe cheerleading shorts. le sigh.
-Being able to walk around without shoes. The french don't do it...like ever. Liana and I do it while upstairs (for the most part) but when we go downstairs at all, we have to have shoes on. Now, we have never been told this rule, but we follow by example, therefore if Chantal and Dominique are doing it, so are we.
-My roommates/friends I find myself thinking about those nights when things weren't going our way, when things were amazing, when we were sleep deprived, when we were lazy all day. The nights spent laying with eachother sharing secrets and stories, and the car rides filled with obnoxious and slightly embarrassing tunes. Bonfires that lasted too long, beach days that involved junk food and slushies, and loud singing in the car. dancing together to clear tension. Parties.shopping. bonding.movies...I could go on and on and on in this one. I miss my girls, I miss the select few boys I actually hung out with (haha) and trust me I plan to make plenty of new memories with all of you this summer.
^That being said, I have made some amazing friends here, and am blessed to have done so. I hope to god to be able to see them over the summer, and am happy that I will at least still have a few of them in Michigan. Thinking about parting ways in June makes me very sad already. The closeness we have encountered here is sort of hard to explain, and is something I'll never forget.

-Family. I miss my sisters. I know that most people my age are at the rebelling against family stage, or just nearing the end of it...I'm not sure I ever hit this rebellion. I have always wanted attention from my sisters, and as I got older it turned from me being the annoying young girl bothering them, to a friend who can share secrets and jokes. I miss having Kristina 5 minutes away while at school, and during particularly rough times, just laying in her bed watching t.v. I miss singing loudly and offkey in the car with Jenelle. I miss friday nights with my girls drinking more coffee than anyone ever should in one night, and telling more personal information than family should know about eachother.  I miss my mom's advice on everything I do, and creating new masterpieces of dessert with her...and of course shopping. I miss my dad pretending to ignore everything I say, but teasing me about it later. I miss witnessing Josh get bigger, and having him repeat stupid things (and maybe inappropriate ones) and I'm sad to be missing Jack in his first few months of life. I know that I am truly blessed to have such a tight knit family, and am lucky to have all of these people believe in me. I cannot wait to see you all again.

I could go on for a while about things I miss from home, but truth is, If I could move the people here, I'd never leave. I love Angers, I love France, and the thing I miss most is the people who mean the most to me. I promise I'm not an emotional wreck or anything, I just have been writing about all these fantastic things I've been doing, and plans I'm making...and just wanted everyone at home to know that I haven't forgotten about any of you. You're all on my mind at one point or another, and in that way, we're not really that far apart. After all,
we are all looking at the same moon.

Hairy Asses ;)

Hello Readers, I've missed you. ;)
The last time I wrote in here it was sort of a heavy topic, well rest assured this entry will be much easier on the emotions...sort of.
This week was honestly the longest week I've had in France so far. I'm not sure why but I spent a lot of my time with a fever and was taking advil like it's my job. By Thursday I felt better, but I was still tired and very much looking forward to a lazy relaxing weekend(ha) and my day was made even better when I got a 16 on my traduction homework. Holy Crap, I've never been so happy....Okay, obviously I'm exaggerating, but you get my point.
Like always, waking up for my 8am Friday made me want to shoot myself.  Why was it easier to wake up m-f at 5:30a.m. for high school, but the minute college happens, waking up at 7a.m. on a Friday feels like the devil himself has come to force you to school?
My langue teacher ended up 15 minutes late for class, so Heather and I got a morning coca-cola fix(hey don't judge our 8a.m. caffeine addiction!) and thus class began. After class Liana and I headed home and instead of falling asleep as normal, I decided to go OCD on my room and clean it thoroughly, along with a few things in the hall, and such. I know, I'm weird, but I couldn't help it, and my room still looks nice, so I call that a win. Nothing super exciting to report about yesterday, other than the night events. ;)
Liana and I met a group of CIDEF girls at soft (bar) and had one beer with them, but from the look of things, our girls had been there longer than us, so when they left us due to a need for 'frites' haha Liana, Nikki, and I set off on the town in search of something better to do. We decided on buying some Desperado's and settling into the Jardin du Mail....or so we thought. We get barely inside of it and are followed by a creepy man asking in french many obscenities, along with if we would like for him to touch us...What on earth would give them the feeling that this is okay? Yes, french-wannabe-thug, I am just DYING for you to be my new baby-daddy, oh please, that is most certainly why I am paying so much in tuition to be in France right now. You and your baggy pants and creeper ways are exactly what I have been waiting for. My own personal knight in shining armor.
I hope to god you all sense the sarcasm here.
anyway, we did NOT drink in peace in the jardin, instead we went to a less pretty but more populated area to finish off our drinks. We ended the night in the safety of McDoner stuffing our faces with bad but delicious food. But not before a cute (and seemingly shy) came up to me and said in broken english for me to have a good night. If my mouth hadn't been full of food, I might have actually given this one the option of talking to me, but alas, the cute shy ones always disapear. Maybe we'll meet again someday. haha

Today was supposed to be a chill/lazy/homework day but we decided to head into town to see what we could find to occupy us. (It was 70ish degrees, sunny, and only getting nicer) We met up with Leah, and wandered across the bridge and into OZ....okay not exactly, but we did wander into the Jardin Balzac, and from there went in search of Scottish cows, which led us to the Lac du Maine...I kid you not, we walked THAT far. haha We did end up finding dreadlocked jamaicain-esque donkeys [hairy asses ;) ] and at this point we were tired from hiking it up and down hills and around countryside, so we sat in the grass for a break.

sigh. Only to be bothered by two french boys, and not the cute, shy, artisticly suffering kind. Nope, more of the wannabe thug kind. This is the countryside boys---are you lost? jeez. They laid heavily on the compliments, and even went as far as to act surprised I'm from America cuz "you don't look American, you're so beautiful" Homeboy needs to work on his backwards compliments. They ended by asking if we used MSN messenger (hello 6th grade?)--we said no, and then if we had facebook--again we said no (hey! lying is okay and absolutely necessary at times!) Homeboys were seemingly harmless and left us in peace after a few more awkward minutes of smalltalk.

After this we made our way back to Angers, and took in every breathtaking image that is the city we live in. I really do love it here, and am truly beyond blessed to be living in such an amazing city in France.

other randomness:
-The girls are convinced it is ME that attracts all the french creepers, I'm not sure this is flatter-able...
-The ladybugs here are color-confused. They are black with red dots. say WHA?
-Chantal peaces out and only tells us where she was for the last 3 days after she mysteriously returns late at night.
-Carnaval, means parade, and it's apparently a secret of when and where it will take place, but french kids (and sometimes adults) dress in costume via Halloween, they throw more confetti than New Years in the U.S. and if you miss it (like Liana and I did) all you see is confetti everywhere as if Angers was under the influence of tacky celebrating that we weren't invited to---oh wait.