Newness

Wow.  The last few days have been WHIRLWIND for me, so here's a little recap...

Christmas eve was a great success.  We went to mass which was a little bit more family oriented than your average Christmas Eve mass, although a fair number of kids were still getting pretty restless about halfway through.  After mass, we had a little pre-dinner apertif and snackies, until Florence's sister showed up, and then we started dinner, which was really light, but really yummy.  Apparently, when Florence was growing up, they really didn't do much in the way of a special dinner on Christmas Eve, but Lionel's family always had a big blowout kind of dinner, so they have reached a sort of compromise between the two.  To start off, we had eggnog à la Terra and Dia, taiwanese salad à la Wei-Ching, this creamy avocado thing à la Lionel, and shrimp.  Then we had smoked salmon and, for the very french (I haven't gotten this french yet), foie gras.  Dessert was a bûche de Noël, which is a (generally chocolate) cake in the shape of a log that is a necessity at Noël in France.  We also had biscochitos à la New Mexico, snow cake à la Taiwan, and lemon tart that Florence's sister is apparently quite famous for.  Delicious and highly multicultural little dinner.  

Dinner/chatting/drinking wine lasted until about 12:30, at which point, everyone put their little shoes and/or slippers under the tree and went to bed.  I, being the little kid that I am at heart, was awake at 7am ready to go enjoy the fabulousness that is presents on Christmas morning.  I made myself stay in bed until I heard the real kids get up and start being awake and whatnot before joining in the festivities.  I haven't really done Christmas morning with a little kids in quite a while, and I was amazed at how giddy they get.  Christmas here is much more low-key in terms of presents than some of the Christmases I celebrated in my childhood, but Mathias was really just having a blast with everything.  I even got him to sit down and do the Cars puzzles that I got him with me.  In terms of presents, I got a couple little things, which was nice because I really don't need anymore stuff...especially after seeing the luggage that Dia hauled out of my apartment this morning, but more on that in a minute.  Florence got me a red and green scarf (which is less christmasy than it sounds), Wei-Ching got me a bracelet, the gave me and Wei-Ching matching mugs, and Dia gave me this funky thing to hang pictures in my room.  Now I need to print out more pictures!  Woo.

Anyway, the rest of Christmas day consisted of watching xmas movies with Dia, making pancakes, and then having dinner with a bunch of the other Oregon students who weren't traveling for the break.  I was really glad to do that.  I've kind of fallen out of touch with a lot of Oregon people, which is a bummer.  I really just don't have classes with most of them, and so I end up hanging out with the people I do have classes with, because it's easier to make plans and such.  But I really do like the other Oregon people, and it was nice to spend an evening eating yummy food, drinking wine, and chatting away about all kinds of good stuff.  

If you think that was the whirlwind part of my week, I'll have you know the madness is just beginning.  Since Christmas, I took Dia around Lyon and we went on a mission to find cute brown boots, which Dia was more successful at than me, but I was ok with that.  Then, my friend Molly cut my hair and I now have bangs and the rest of my hair is more layery and fun.  It is weird to have bangs, because I haven't had them in ages, but it's kind of fun.  On the way back from Molly's, I found a wonderfully cheap pair of brown boots, and also found the fabric store and bought red fabric for a Prince Charming cape.

Then, Detective Nikky Flippers flew in from New Mexico, and it's been a blast ever since.  Especially because he came bearing presents.  Namely, FRONTIER TORTILLAS!!!! (which I threatened to leave him at the airport if he forgot).  But also lots of gum, red chile, black beans, and Buffet's piñon candy, which I wanted to share with my host familia, who are all quite fond of piñon.  He also brought tons of pink satiny fabric, a blonde wig, and a tiara to turn me into princess Aurora.  YES!!!!

Anyway, he, Dia, and I squished into my little bedroom and hung out and watched movies.  And this morning, Dia unpacked and repacked her luggage, which was quite an adventure, and then we saw her off at the train station.  From there, Flipper's and I took the metro to Hôtel de Ville and did the tour of the shopping district of Lyon.  We were mostly in search of stuff for the Sleeping Beauty/Prince Charming costumes, but all we really ended up getting for that was some eye shadow.  We also came home with a blow dryer for me (because I hadn't bough one yet as I never blow-dry my hair, but now that I have bangs, I actually have to put a little effort into doing my hair...ugh), a shirt and a rhinestone-encrusted bowtie for Flippers, and a wonderful pair of green boots for me, which are pretty much exactly what I've been wanting, and only cost 15 euro, so probably the best buy ever.  Oh, and we also bought a comb and hair cutting scissors because Flippers decided that he trusted me to play with/cut his hair, which I just finished.  It was fun!  

Anyway, that's the update on life in Lyon lately.  I feel like things have been SO crazy and I can't believe it's almost new years and then before I know it, Flippers will be leaving (sad) and I will be finishing up the last of my classes, and then traveling (hopefully...there may be a small snag in my plans...boo) and then starting new classes and then in less than 2 months, I will be home for a week!  Seriously, I feel like I've been counting my life in relation to that trip home because I need it so badly.  No matter that the trip will go by incredibly fast and then I'll be back here and back to work and school and life.  I feel like I can't even think about anything after that at this point because that's like this light at the end of the tunnel.  Not that anything is wrong or bad or anything.  Things are great, and I'm clearly keeping busy and having a good time, but I need some family/friends/New Mexico therapy that I just can't get anywhere else.

Wow.  Gotta stop now cuz Flippers and I were thinking about going out tonight and it's already almost nine and he's all ready and has fallen asleep and I'm still in my post-shower/hair cutting PJs and neither of us have eaten dinner.  And watching him sleep is kind of making me think a little power nap might be nice before hitting the dance floor.  Hmm...I guess maybe it's a good thing things don't really get hopping here until at least 11...

And, I'm off!  Biz.

Mamacita, donde esta Santa Clause?

That's my favorite Christmas song, after Silent night and the Mariah Carey Christmas CD.  Although, this Christmas remake of Purple Haze is making me smile a lot, too.  I really do just love Christmas music, and especially really weird Christmas music à la Peter C.  No one will get that but my mom, but oh well.  Ok, seriously, if you have iTunes, go into the radio, and in the holiday section you will find "Xmas in Frisko".  Listen to it, and be amazed.  I am now listening to Reggae Days of Christmas.  YES.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve, and so far it's been an interesting day.  My friend who's visiting fell in the shower this morning while I was at the grocery store, and we almost had to go to the hospital, but she's ok.  In a lot of pain, but not concussiony or anything, thankfully.  After that little craziness,  she bought me a poinsettia as my Christmas present.  There is a flower shop underneath my apartment, and I've passed by this window everyday and looked longingly at the only poinsettia that I've seen in France, and so she decided to buy it for me.  The thing should be made out of solid gold, the amount of money that was paid for it.  I guess we had to pay for it to travel first class to the states.  Which is so strange considering that I am used to cheap poinsettias everywhere I go at Christmastime.  

One very expensive poinsettia later, we made eggnog, and this time I dared to do it with raw eggs.  The concept is kind of terrifying, but it does taste better.  And, if you add rum, that will kill all the bacteria, right?  Of course.  We also made some of the cooked kind because my friend (Mad Buffalo hehe) is a little freaky about raw eggs.  I hope the familia enjoys it.  Also, we made biscochitos last night!!!!!!!!  Best thing ever.  Now if I only had some posole, I would really be happy.  But I am going to just be happy anyway, because I have a fabulous host fam, a fabulous roommate, and a great friend visiting me, and we are going to have a very merry Christmas.  And Mad Buffalo brought the Charlie Brown Christmas special, so we are gonna watch that and make pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.  And maybe go hang out with some of the other study abroad people who are family-less in Lyon for Christmas.  Yay friends!

Well, I should probably finish getting ready to go to mass and have dinner and everything, but I want to say Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you are all doing fabulously and getting to spend time with the people you love the most.  And eat some delicious Christmasy food for me.  Especially posole and gingerbread cookies if you have them.  Some special Christmas messages:

Mommy:  I'm glad you are getting to have your relaxed Christmas this year.  Also, the pictures absolutely totally made my day (and Mad Buffalo's, as well).  I love you and miss you like crazy and I will call you later.  *MUAH*

Nana:  I miss you SO much!!  I hope the decorations at Manzano are beautiful and you get yummy yummy food.  And I hope my present gets there soon!  I think you are gonna like it a lot!

Daddy:  I know you're not a big Christmas celebrator, but I hope having Sofy around got you in the spirit a little bit.  I love you and miss you!

Sofy:  Big giant Christmas hug from your sis!!!  And since it's dad who's reading this, give her a big hug and kiss for me.

Boe:  Merry Christmas!!!  I love you SO much and I miss you and I hate not getting to see you for Christmas.  HUG!!!!

GG:  You better be taking pictures of luminarias for me!!  You promised!  I love you hun!!!

NapoleOn:  Feliz Navidad, mi amor!!!  I love you so much and I hope you are having fun back home!!!

And a special shout out to Asian Glow:  I hope you made it home safely!!!  Merry Christmas!!  Lyon misses you!

Ok, if you didn't make it on that list, it's certainly not out of lack of love.  There's enough Terra-love to go around.  So to everyone else who is amazing and has kept up with this little blog, thank you and Merry Christmas!!!

Biz.

Can't say I didn't try

I tried les cuisses de grenouille yesterday.  For those of you that know me, you know I'm not a huge fan of strange foods, and that I'm a vegetarian, but when in Rome, right?  There are two things that everyone says should be tried as long as you are living in Frogs-legs-a-gogo-land: frogs legs and escargot.  Well, I can now cross frogs legs of my list and say that I'm not missing too much.  I still haven't gotten up the nerve to confront escargot.  I'm not a big texture-phobe, but I can't imagine the texture of a slug is something I'm going to enjoy.  Anyway, back to the frogs legs.  I went out to dinner last night with my colleagues from one of the elementary schools I work at.  We went to a restaurant in Perrouges, which is a little medieval village about 40 minutes from Lyon.  I went there when I was staying with the Roys three years ago, and really enjoyed it.  Last night, though, we didn't see much but the restaurant because it was dark and foggy and cold.  It was a nice little restaurant, but there wasn't much on the menu that was veg-friendly, so I ended up just ordering a salad with salmon and cheesy potatoes (luckily gratin dauphinois is a specialty in the region).  Four of the other teachers ordered frogs legs, though, and insisted that I try them, so I did.  In the end, not bad...a little tough or dry or something, but tastes more or less like something between chicken and fish.  Maybe it's because I haven't had meat other than fish in 5+ years, but I really wasn't impressed, even though everyone else who was eating them were all gaga over how good they were.  To each their own, I guess.  Luckily, the gratin was super delicious.  I love cheese and I love potatoes, and the two together equal a happy Terra.

To completely change the subject, I am officially on vacation!!  Yay!!  I had portuguese this morning, but after I finished my translation test (which I don't feel as good about as I did the grammar test, but I'm hoping the prof will go easy on me considering I am not a native french speaker, so translating from portuguese to french is kind of tough for me), I was done until January 11th.  woohoo.  I'm starting to get really excited about Christmas.  I spent yesterday dressing up my presents.  I LOVE wrapping presents.  I made fancy ribbony bows with Papillotes, which are these lyonnais chocolate candies that people here are obsessed with, and candy canes (which I was hella excited to find yesterday, because this certainly is not the states, and they do not have boxes and boxes of candy canes in a million different forms and flavors in every store).  They are so pretty!  It's a relatively simple set of presents, only for the host fam, Wei-Ching, and my friend Dia, but they certainly look pretty, so that's what really matters.  I also found an "alternative Christmas" station on iTunes radio, so I'm listening to weird Christmas songs, which makes me really happy, especially since I didn't think to bring my own fabulous Christmas mixes with me, and I love weird versions of Christmas songs.  Basically, my room feels quite Christmasy right now.  I hung candy canes on my ficus, and the presents are all arranged around it, and then I have two drawings of Christmas trees from the kiddos hanging on the wall, and then funky Christmas music playing...that's the spirit!

And I have all the ingredients for biscochitos in my kitchen and the family recipe in my email inbox, so Dia and Wei-CHing and I can make them for Christmas.  YAY!!!!  Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Ooh!  And I'm really excited because I was talking to Barbara, the director of the Penn program today, and I mentioned the New Years party and the dressing up in costumes and whatnot, and that lead to making things, which led to her telling me about a fabric store that is more or less like JoAnn Fabrics or other american fabric stores.  Which is AMAZING because I really heart fabric stores.  I'm not all that crafty when it comes to sewing but, I one of my favorite things ever is to buy fabric scraps and make headbands or belts or whatever out of them.  And, I was thinking it would be cool to find some green sparkly material to spice up our costumes.  And maybe, depending on how brave I'm feeling and if I find a store that sells them, I might try to make some fairy wings.   So that is going to be my project for the week.  Should be fun. 

On a less exciting note, I really have managed to get sick again.  It took all the energy I could muster to get up and go to my portuguese class this morning, and I still can't breathe through my nose and I'm all coughy and whatnot.  What the heck?  I don't get sick that often, and this is the third time since I got here in September.  I am not so much ok with this plan.  And the fact that it is currently -1˚C (30˚F) out, probably doesn't help at all.  Seriously, I think I actually feel the cold here more than I ever did back home, even if the temperatures are similar.  I definitely remember last year in the giant snow-dump of 2006, that I was able to be outside in a sweater and a coat and jeans and gloves and was more or less comfortable.  Chilly when the snow got under my clothes or if it was windy, but here I'm chilled to the bone all the time.  Even in two long-sleeve shirts and my peacoat and leggings under my pants and a chunky scarf and gloves, etc.  WTF?!?!

Speaking of being cold, I think I'm gonna go eat me some hot soup cuz I never ate lunch and I'm cold.

Biz.

bye bye

Well, my first semester in Lyon is quickly coming to an end, and that means that all the semester people are getting ready to leave.  Almost all of the Oregon people are here for the whole year, but most of the Penn and an bunch of the UC students are only doing the semester, and I've found myself spending a lot more time with Penn and UC people than with the rest of the Oregon group for some reason.  That means that a big chunk of my friends are heading out in the next few days.  Sad much?

Last week, I went to dinner with a bunch of the Penn people at a Paul Bocuse restaurant.  Paul Bocuse is a really well-known chef here in Lyon.  There are a lot of boulangerie/patisseries that carry his name, four bistros, and one really fancy restaurant/culinary school.  We were actually supposed to have our Thanksgiving dinner at the school, but there was a problem with the reservation and we ended up elsewhere.  I was a bit disappointed with that because Florence kept telling me how fancy and amazing the food is (not to mention incredibly expensive).  Not that we didn't have a really delicious dinner.  Anyway, we ended up at one of the bistros because they wanted to do kind of a blowout fancy schmancy dinner before leaving town, and I got to join them, which was really nice.  Delicious!  A good way to say goodbye to Lyon, I think.  Or in my case, to say goodbye to new friends.  I've also had a couple more outings with various Penn people who are getting ready to head out, and it's quite sad to say goodbye to them.  I think my friend Jenn is quite convinced to work on coming back for spring break, though, which would be quite exciting.

I can't even imagine leaving right now, despite the strong desire I've had lately to be home.  It would be really nice to be with my family for Christmas, but even with all the stuff I've been going through, I'm definitely not ready to say goodbye to this place.  There are so many things I haven't done yet, and I can't wait for Lyon in the springtime, when it starts to get warmer to leave the comfort of my bed and get a bike and ride around and hang out at the park and hang out on café terraces and just wander.  Plus, I can't imagine saying goodbye to Wei-Ching or the Babots or Florence or any of the other great people I've met since being here.  I'm definitely of the opinion that one semester is not nearly enough time to really get to know a place.  At least not for me.  

In that same line of thought, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks here (even without all my friends who are going home, or the others who are traveling for the holidays).  I am excited for my friend, Dia, to come stay with me.  I'm really excited to celebrate Christmas with the Babots and to have the French Christmas experience.  And to add my own little New Mexico flair to Christmas by making biscochitos and egg nog.  And then my friend is coming from New Mexico, which I seriously cannot wait for....and not just because he's bringing Frontier tortillas, although that in itself is pretty exciting.  I'm really looking forward to showing him around town and taking him out on the town and going to Paris and seeing Cabaret.  SO much to fit into his 9 days here.  Plus, we are going to a New Year's Eve party that Flo's freind is throwing, which is Disney themed!!  That is SO cool.  Detective Nikky Flippers (I heart nicknames) and I are going to go as characters from Peter Pan.  Naturally, I wanted to go as Sleeping Beauty, but that costume would be a lot of work, and Peter Pan is easy and fun.  Although I might have to fight him for Tinker Bell.  Hehehe.  I love that I found people in Lyon who throw theme parties...it's like being back in Eugene and going to theater parties.  Plus costumes lead to great photos, and great photos are fabulous.  

Um...other than all that, it's still too cold to do anything and I think I'm sick again (what is this?  I do not get sick this often!), which is a bummer.  So I've been trying to find a balance between going out with friends and getting rest so that I don't spend Christmas couching up a lung or not being able to breathe.  So far, so good, and I'm feeling a lot better today than I have the past couple of days.  Good thing I got the box from my mom, though, because I definitely needed the emergen-c.  I seriously love whoever invented the stuff.

Well...speaking of trying to see friends, I'm going to a movie with Flo and Claudine, so I've got to get moving.  

Biz!!

brrrrrr

Wow.  It is COLD here.  Really, really cold.  Even in my room, which has a heater...I am in two long sleeve shirts and STILL I am freezing.  Or maybe I'm just still freezing for standing outside for like two and a half hours watching a soccer game in which no points were scored.  Not one.  And they just left it like that...no overtime...nothing.  Two and a half hours and I froze to death and I don't even get to celebrate winning OR be sad that we lost.  Now that is what I call anticlimactic.  For serious.  And now I don't even want to go out because it's too cold.  Even though it's a Saturday night and the last weekend that a bunch of my friends are going to be in town...the very thought of going anywhere near outside makes me want to crawl under the covers and never come out again.  I've decided I'm very pro the whole hibernation concept.  I mean, bears do it...why not me too?

Cozy comes in a box

I am quite a happy camper right now.  Yesterday, I got a package from my mom containing lots of love and amazingness.  I probably could have waited until Christmas to open it, but I was too excited, and because she had told me it was cozy stuff, which I definitely need lately because it is COLD.  Everything in this box was perfect (so thank you mamacita!!!) and I now have a new, cute, cozy long sleeve hoodie to keep me warm; a cuddly stuffed animal, which is nice because, if you know me, you know that I love stuffed animals; amazing coffee; emergen-c, a necessity in winter, especially when you work with kiddos; incense, and now my room smells like New Mexico and Christmas; yummy smelling soap; a really good CD, which I am listening to right now; a hilarious book about bananas and their evil plans, hehe; and part of my Christmas present for my host brother.  YES!  Best box EVER.  And it didn't get lost like the last one (which is still wandering around postal land somewhere...sad), so that is a definite plus.

Also, I rocked my portuguese test last week, and almost all of my exams are done, and the only class I have to attend between now and Feb 4 is portuguese because I'm pretty much DONE with this semester.  The only stress left is the 10-15 page paper I have to write for constitutional law...ugh.  But I have some time to procrastinate on that one for a while, so that's a good thing.

And now that I have a slightly crooked but beautifully decorated drawing of a Christmas tree hanging in my room, I feel like I can be in the holiday spirit.  As usual, I still have a couple presents to buy, but I'm honestly glad not to be doing the crazy stressful Christmas presents thing this year.  I'm only getting presents for my host family and my roommate, which is pretty much taken care of.  I love the whole presents under the tree, excitement of Christmas morning thing, but at the same time, it's nice to have a chill out kind of Christmas.  Especially because I know I'm gonna be really homesick on Christmas, and this way my friend and I can just kind of chill at home and drink warm drinks and eat cookies and miss home together.  And then go out and explore Lyon some if it's not too cold out.

Well...I am going to a soccer game tonight, and I need to get ready and straighten up my room a little so that there's room for my friend to sleep on the floor if she decides to stay the night after the game.  

Bisous!

Things I'm really loving about Lyon right now:

~Little French children that I work with

~Christmas tree in my room drawn by said French children

~Complete strangers who are amazingly friendly

~Dancing until 2 am

~Being able to find a bike, ride it, and drop it off at 2 am

I would love to write more about all of these things, because today was a very fabulous day, but it is 3am, and I have class in 6.5 hours and I need to get some sleep.  So goodnight.  Bisous.

Just another Manic Monday

Well, I just slept through my alarm, missing my second day of work at my new job. Way to make a good impression. But I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of glad to be back in my bed and now I have a little time to catch up on things before I have to start my day.

First of all, clearly I have started a new job. I'm teaching English at an elementary school, which is pretty cool. The only unfortunate part is that the two schools I am working at are not even in Lyon and it takes me an hour each way to get to one and an hour and a half to get to the other. It is definitely going to be an interesting experience, though. Especially because the majority of the kids I will be working with are learning English for the first time. That makes my job easier and harder at the same time. On the one hand, I don't have to do all that much because on any given day I am probably only going to be able to teach them a couple words. On the other, if I talk in English, which I am supposed to do, they have no idea what I'm saying. I really do enjoy working with kids, though, so I think I will end up liking this job a lot. You know, once I atually get up in time to go to it...hehe

On top of starting the job last week, I also had three tests, one of which I wasn't entirely sure I would be having. The first was in my Constitutional Law discussion class. Basically we had thrity minutes to write about three different topics...kind of a short answer kind of thing. Not too bad. I also found out that, for the lecture class in constitutional law, I have to write an essay and turn it in by the 15th of January instead of taking the exam. A 10-15 page essay on something we've learned. I really need to start working on that...

Tuesday night was my exam for my socialism class. I really didn't know what to expect or how to study for this test. It is the only test, and therefore our only grade, and the professor told us that he would give us the choice of two essay questions, with a special pair of qustions for foreign students. He told us that one of the questions last year was "what is social-democracy?" That's not vague or anything. So a couple girls from my class came over before the exam and we looked over notes and ate lebanese food from the restaurant across the street (delish!). It turns out we had a choice of three questions and they were much more specific than last years. I think it went really well. The question I wrote on was "Social-democracy in Germany and travaillisme (basically, the workers movement) in Great Brittain. Try a comparison." We had two hours to write, and I actually had a lot to say and I think it turned out pretty good, so I'm feeling good about that one.

So then on Friday I had my first portuguese class in three weeks, and we had the test we were supposed to have three weeks ago, the first week of the strikes. That went pretty well, although I had spent a lot of time doing theexercises on new material that he had given us to do to make up for the missed class, and not a whole lot of time reviewing the old stuff. But all in all, not too bad. Written portuguese is going pretty well for me, even though I still have a hard time understanding it when I hear it, and I have some trouble getting the accent right. It's somewhere between a french and a spanish accent, but I'm having trouble finding the right balance. Luckily, the test was all written, so that ended up working out.

With all of this stuff going on, plus the fête des lumières this weekend, I am exhausted and have been sick since last weekend, and haven't had much time for anything else. Which I'm not sure is such a good thing. In terms of "how I'm doing," which my friend Caroline (one of two people here that I've talked to about my grandpa) asked me about last night while we were "studying" for test #4 that's on Wednesday, I don't even know. I haven't really even had time to breathe, much less stop and deal with myself. I would like to think that the fact that I've barely cried in a week is a good thing, but I'm not sure that's true. On Tuesday night, after the socialism test, I went out with a couple of girls who are here from California to have a drink in celebration of being done, and we sat ant talked for a good two hours and we got to the subject in a sort of round-about way and I sat there telling these two girls that I barely knew about it and Caroline almost started crying and I couldn't cry, which was a strange change from the month that I had spent crying a lot. And since then I've just been so busy that I don't have time to sit down and do my own thing. I did have something of an at peace, but mourning moment on Saturday night on my way home from the fête des lumières, which was good, but I kind of think I need to take more time to do that.

I do have to say, though, I have some of the most amazing people in my life and I am so thankful for them. I'm not sure what I would do without the great support and love I've been getting. My mom, of course, even though we haven't been able to talk as much as I would like because we've both been pretty busy and dealing with things. And my grandma, who is being amazingly strong through all of this. My dad, who I talked to for a while, and who apparantly sent me a letter, which i should be receiving soon, and which I'm sure will make me cry a lot but also be incredibly healing for me. My best friend, who made my mom muffins last Sunday and who has thought about coming out here in January just because she wants to see me (even if she doesn't make it because the logistics are kind of crazy and because I will be home for a while in February, it is amazing to know that I have a best friend who would pick up and come here more or less at the last minute just because she knows I am going through difficult times). GG, who has provided me with great music and tons of love through this whole thing, and who has just been an overall great friend. I love you guys all SO much and thank you for being there for me, even if it has to be from far away.

Well, now that I've finally cried a little bit and caught everyone up on my life, I suppose I should deal with starting my day since I have a bunch of extra time that I wasn't supposed to have today. I'm sure I can come up with plenty of stuff that needs to get done to fill the hours.

Bisous.

Fête des Lumières

Wow...I'm pretty sure tonight was one of the most impressive experiences of my life.  

To offer a quick history lesson, December 8 is the Fête des lumières (Festival of Lights) in Lyon.  The one sentence history is that it is essentially celebrated to thank the Virgin Mary for saving Lyon from the Plague back in the day.  The simplistic tradition is the the Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourvière (built in honor of the Virgin Mary) is lit up and the people of Lyon put little candles in their windows.  Of course, today things cannot be that simple, and the fête des lumières has become quite the spectacle.  It now lasts 3-4 days, and all the major monuments in town are lit up in some really fantastic way.  The main part of the celebration, though, is still on December 8, and the entire population of Lyon, plus a bunch of tourists, hit the streets and go out to see the various animations set up around town.

Walking around town was a little like the annual luminaria walk on Christmas Eve in Albuquerque (which I am going to miss terribly this year...hopefully I will get pictures *wink wink nudge nudge*)...only times a bazillion.  Everywhere we went was full of people, and most of the time I felt like I was just getting carried along with the waves of people.  I went out Thursday and Friday night for a little while as well, and I thought it was crowded then, but tonight was overwhelming.  I met up with Céline (my host sister from when I was here 3 years ago) and a couple of her girlfriends.  

We went first to Place Bellecour (essentially the center of town), where the statue of Louis XIV has been made into a snow globe, and their are neon signs on the base of the statue, which say "I Love Lyon" and "Only Lyon" (in English).  There is also a ferris wheel and there are kebab/crêpe/vin chaud stands all over the place and music and all kinds of stuff.  We spent at least 20 minutes trying to find another of their friends, and then took some pictures, and then headed in the direction of Hôtel de Ville.

We thought we were being really clever by taking a side street instead of the main road that runs between Place Bellecour and Hôtel de Ville, but it turns out that wasn't a very good idea.  There were a ton of people and it was pretty much impossible to move.  It would normally take maybe 10 minutes to make the trip, but it took us a good 30-45 minutes.  Plus, thanks to the motion of the crowd, we had to pass by the Théâtre des Célestins, which was the part I've really been wanting to see.  But there wasn't much we could do cuz the crowd definitely had it's own plans for us.  When we got to Hôtel de Ville, the crowds were even worse.  At one point, I was actually afraid for my life a little bit because we were completely coincé (stuck) in this little section of street and this guy decided to be clever and climb the scaffolding of a building.  In the process, he broke the neon sign of one of the stores and everyone started freaking out and then people were trying to go under the scaffolding, which made me a little nervous because of how many people there were pushing and shoving, and the possibility of the scaffolding not holding up.

We made it out alive and got to the Place des Terreaux, which is in front of Hôtel de Ville, and we oohed and aahed at the giant ball of stained glass that gets lit up from different directions and there are smoke machines and it's all very fancy.  I think I got some pretty cool pictures of it.  By this point, the girls were getting hungry and a little tired of being pushed around, so we made our way to the quais trying to find a restaurant or café or kebab shop that wasn't insanely crowded, but to no avail and we ended up wandering in the direction of Perrache, where Céline and her friends had to catch buses home.  It felt like we had been out walking around forever, but it was really only about 9:30.  They were ready to try to catch buses, though, so we kept going in that direction.  

After they left me at Perrache, I decided that I really wanted to go to the Théâtre des Célestins by myself because I had seen pictures of the light show there and it seemed really cool.  So, I stopped at the pancake shop at the Christmas market near Perrache to get some yumminess and energy to brave the crowd again, and dove in.  There were slightly less people at this point, but it still took me a while to make it from Perrache, across Place Bellecour, and to Célestins, where I stayed for a while taking pictures because it was just that cool.  Basically, they were projecting images onto the front of the building.  Using relatively simple images repeated over and over, they created king of a sliding puzzle effect.  I don't really know how to explain it, but it was really beautiful and I took pictures of all of the different patterns.  

Right about the time my camera battery started to die, they shut off the lights for a little while, and the crowd carried me off toward something else.  I was pretty much ready to go home, so I was making my way slowly but surely in that direction.  I ended up stopping at the hospital, the main court of which was filled with what looked like a vineyard, but instead of grapes there were lights, which changed colors.  It was pretty cool.  I hung out there for a while just kind of soaking in the atmosphere and thinking about my grandpa and having a very peaceful little moment.  Even amidst the craziness that was continuing around me, which was nice.

Finally, I got back out to the street, put my headphones, and made the trek home.  There were still SO many people out.  It was really quite amazing the amount of people I saw in the streets of Lyon tonight.  They were everywhere.

And that was essentially my night.  This description does nothing for the experience of being in that big of a crowd or experiencing these massive presentations of light and color and sound.  But I needed to write it anyway, and at least try to share it.  If you ever have the chance to come to Lyon, do it in early December and catch this.  Highly overwhelming and even a little frightening at times, but the experience is totally worth it.

I have a lot more to say, both about the Fête and abut life in general (because I've been crazy busy and unable to keep up--I'm sorry GG, I will try to do better so you have something to read on your daily persusals of this blog), but I'm starting to fall asleep, so I shall stop here and say à demain.  

Goodnight and GROS bisous!

hello to goodbye

Wow...the last 24 hours or so has been really intense for me.  Im still kind of running on adrenaline from last night and I am ridiculously excited about that, but then about two hours after I went to sleep this morning, I got a phone call that was, while not terribly unexpected, really upsetting and I really just don't know what to think, really.  My mom's been telling me I should write about the rough stuff that's been going on back home that has made being here so hard lately (which I've mentioned a time or two but not gone into).  I guess now is as good a time as any.

Forewarning: this is hard for me.  Really hard.  Bear with me if I ramble.

So this summer, my grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He started chemo (after a lot of uncertainty about the possibility and value of going through chemo) right after I left for France.  My grandparents have always been very present in my life.  Ever since I was about six they lived around the corner from me and we had steak dinners with them regularly, and they would babysit me when my mom had meetings, and we celebrated all holidays together.  And I have always seen my grandfather as this wonderfully worldly and strong person who has been all over the world and seen so many things.  Even this summer when he was pretty weak, he was stubbornly independent (source of much frustration for my mother) and very strong in his own way.  So it was really hard for me to even imagine him in a hospital bed in Manzano del Sol's care center, much less as weak as my mom has described to me in many long late night emails (which, despite being really upsetting at times, have been indispensable for me over the last few months).

Death is not something I've ever really had to confront, but it's also not something I am terribly afraid of.  I believe in a general interconnectedness in the universe.  I know that death is a part of living, and I think that in whatever way, people who die always stay with us.  But you can say that all you want until you have to confront losing someone who has always been in your life and who means so much to you.  So when emails from my mom started to talk about the inevitability of my grandpa's death, I kind of started freaking out.   I wasn't ready...and I REALLY wasn't ready to deal with it alone.  I'm not actually alone in any of this because I have amazing family and friends, but it's easy to feel like I am when they are all a third of the way around the world from me.

So that's what I've been trying to deal with while traveling around Europe and going to school and living in France and dealing with student strikes and rail strikes.  That's why I often get the urge to stay in bed under the covers all day long and that's why I sometimes have to fight the urge to burst into tears in class or on the metro.  And that's why when my phone rang at 8:30 this morning (just two hours after I crawled into bed), and i saw my home phone number part of me wanted to huddle down in bed more and not answer the phone, but I did answer the phone and I tried to pretend that my mom's voice was coming from next to me in bed instead of through a phone from thousands of miles away.

And I spent the day celebrating my grandfather's life doing something he would have loved.  I took a bus with most of the other Oregon students and some invitees (including Wei-Ching) and went to a small vineyard in the Beaujolais region run by this really sweet couple and we learned about wine tasting and ate an amazing meal, and then they showed us how they make break in this big brick oven.  It was a really fantastic experience.  

Despite the fact that I was celebrating grandpa's life in my own little way, I felt so strange hanging out with everyone and talking excitedly about the MC Solaar concert and getting to after-party with him and his crew--which I'm still really excited about.  As a sidenote, I kind of wonder at the fact that I was sitting in a VIP lounge in the Radisson drinking a cocktail and bise-ing MC Solaar while my grandpa was "flying away".  I know it's easy to read into things like this and look for universal connections, but it's kind of nice to think that maybe my grandpa was there in spirit nudging the situation along so that i could have that once in a lifetime experience.  Anyway, back to my train of thought...it was a very strange feeling day, because very few people that I was with had any idea of what I was (and have been) going through.  I'm not very good at making myself the center of what feels like pitiful attention...and I don't generally like to put my problems on other people unless I know that they are a part of that group of wonderful close people that I don't know what I would do without.  I don't know how to say, hey by the way guys, my grandpa is in the hospital and that's really hard on me, or hey by the way guys my grandpa passed away yesterday.  I mean...where does that fit into discussions about the strikes and wine and MC Solaar and whatever else it is that people my age who are studying in France talk about?  I haven't figured that out yet.

And so I have long email correspondences with my mom, and talk to her on the phone, and sometimes I talk about it to my friends back home on AIM, and I call my best friend, and I listen to the playlist I made called "Dealing", and I cry sometimes in my room, and I look forward to going home in February, and otherwise I try to experience Lyon and Europe and the universe to their fullest(s?) because everyone reminds me that that is what my grandpa expected and wanted me to do and that's what I'm here for and that's probably the best (if not the only) way to get through this given the circumstances.

And now I am going to go to sleep because I am emotionally wiped out and my body does not appreciate the fact that I got less than 3 hours of sleep last night.  

I feel like I should have some really deep ending to this...but I don't.  So there you go.

Holy shit

I apologize for the vulgarity but that's what comes to mind right now.

It's 6:30 am.  I just got home from something I'm still trying to convince myself really happened because it's just too much for reality.  The MC Solaar concert was last night and that in itself is amazing.  I have loved MC Solaar since French I at the Academy when we first listened to "Solaar Pleure".

To add to the amazingness, after the show we were hanging out and saw the guy who had opened for MC Solaar and so we went up and started talking to him in hopes of taking a picture and going on our way.  All of the sudden he was inviting us to the after party and then we were in this VIP area of their hotel drinking cocktails and then I was in a cab with my friend and MC Solaar and then we were at a club dancing until 6 am with his crew.  Seriously.  I do not have words to describe how amazing tonight was.  I just needed to put it out there that that happened before going to bed so that when I wake up I have some proof that I can look at and say, wow, that really happened.

And how I'm going to bed because I have to be at the university in 5 and a half hours to get on a bus and go to Beaujolais with the Centre Oregon.  So good night and OH MY GOD.

Bisous.  All my love.

you kinda lost me on that one...

So, throughout this whole student strike business, I've been feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.  Part of me is like, what are these people doing?  All that they are accomplishing is blocking everyone else from going to class.  I feel like this is the attitude of a lot of the people I know, and especially the other american students, who are sick of not knowing if they are going to have class and not knowing what is going on .  

On the other hand, the revolutionary activist in me has a different attitude: rock on guys, fight the system and don't let your universities become privatized!  I don't know all the particularities of the law, but from what I have read and heard, I'm not a big fan of it.  

So overall, I just don't know what to think about all of this.  I like to see students standing up to the state and fighting against something that they don't think is right, but at the same time, I think that blocking campus is taking it a little too far.  Strike and protest in the street; cool, I'm behind you, but once you start impeding on other peoples' rights and abilities to get on with their lives, I'm not sure it's such a good thing.  It's kind of a fine line, I think.

And they crossed it yesterday and really lost my support.  

Here's some context:

The administration has been taking a lot of steps to get things back on track and negotiate with the blockers.  One of the big issues has been getting legitimate student input on the whole thing.  The AGs, which are big student meetings where everyone is invited to come and speak their mind and vote (by a count of raised hands) on different things, are basically being run by the students who are leading the movement, and the majority of people who make it to them are those who are for the strike.  Therefore, they continue to vote to continue the strike.  Their argument is that the AGs are open and that anyone can come and vote as they like, which is a valid argument, but not very practical.  

Last week, the university organized an online vote, which was decided to be illegitimate at an AG, so the students called for a boycott.  The majority (with about 35% of the students voting) called to stop the blockage and get back to classes, but who knows what would have happened if the vote hadn't been boycotted, so that vote didn't do much.  This week, the administration has been holding meetings and negotiations and agreed to hold an in-person, secret ballot vote on campus, which was something the student blockers had been asking for (although, after all that, they said they wouldn't accept the results of it...?).  The administration has really been pushing to reopen the campuses and allow students to return to classes, but it sounds like they were quite open to continuing discussions and debates, just in a slightly different context.

Anyway, it has finally been looking like things might return to relative normalcy...until last night when a big group of students went into a grocery store en masse, filled at least 5 grocery carts with food, and passed through the cash registers without paying.  Apparently there were about 50 of them, and they attacked a security guard who tried to stop them, so there was little anyone could do to stop them.  They took the stoled food back to the Bron campus, where they were met by police and a number of arrests were made.  The administration decided to close the campus for at least two more days while they try to figure out what to do.

Ok, seriously guys, that's just ridiculous!  I don't understand how they expect people to take them seriously if they are pulling stunts like that.  I certainly can't.

Something that has really been bugging me about this whole thing is that it started as a movement against a law that a lot of people are against, a law that was passed under shady circumstances, but I have hardly heard anyone really talking about the law for a couple weeks now.  Granted, I haven't been attending a lot of the meetings, but I feel like most of the debate has been around the blocking of campus and whether that should continue.  Which is a very different question.  I know a lot of people who say the law is bad, but also that blocking campus is not the right answer. 

I'm not sure how to conclude other than: arrgghhhhh.  This whole thing has become ridiculous.  I am a lot less affected by it because the IEP has yet to vote to block campus, and therefore all I have been missing is capoeira and purtuguese (although I really miss capoeira and haven't been able to go to the senzala studio for non-university classes), but a lot of people are missing all their classes and all of the work has to be made up somehow, which could get difficult if this continues. 

And that is my 2 cents.  Speaking of work, I have two tests next week and some portuguese homework that I really should be doing, so I'm going to end this here.

Bisous.

coolest idea ever

So, on my first morning in London (ie Saturday), whilst munching on toast (which I was SO excited about because I don't have a toaster in my kitchen and I don't buy sliced bread), I started chatting with this guy who was staying in my hostel. We were talking about music and he told me that he had made mix CDs and brought them with him to give to people and he left me a copy on my bed. It is so cool!! And what a cool idea for people who are traveling, especially when staying in hostels! I love it!!

Going to London ended up being a really amazing experience. I was talking to one of the guys at the conference, Clint (from Mesa, AZ), and he was saying that London was never really on his list of places to go, but he was really glad he went. I feel the same way. I mean, I guess I've always wanted to at least see London, but it's never been all that high on my list. Then I got an email about this Globalization and Justice Conference put on by Americans for Informed Democracy, and thought it sounded interesting, so I signed up and headed over the channel with my friend Margot to Londontown.  One airport fiasco, a train ride, some claustrophobia at Liverpool Street station, and wandering nonsensically up and down Holborn Road, we arrived at the Faraday House, where the conference was being held, just in time to miss introductions but still able to eat pizza.

The conference was a REALLY good thing for me.  I have always been a relatively engaged and I've gotten used to working with campus groups like CAER or doing other organizing (or just sitting outside Napoleon's apartment drinking wine and talking local and national politics), and those are all things that have been missing in my life being here, although I have tried to stay apprised of what's going on in the student movement lately and went to an Assemblée Générale last week just to see what it would be like.  That isn't the point right now, though.  The point is, I needed this weekend as a reminder of what it's like to spend time with other engaged people and discuss important issues and come up with ways to be active and organize and all that jazz.  I think that, most of all, I am glad I went because I was able to connect and interact with people at the conference on levels that I haven't experienced in a while.  With the other American students here, it's all traveling and what we did over the weekend and "I miss home", etc. and I'm not really to a point with most of the french students I know to sit and discuss global issues and have fun at the same time.  Not that any of that is bad, it's just different from what I am used to.  

Basically, the conference was made up of american college students, both in the states and students studying abroad, and a number of british students as well (although none from London, which could have been helpful at certain moments when we were wandering around in the middle of the night not entirely sure where we were).  There were people there who had done a bit of organizing/activism type stuff, as well as people who had never done any of it, and mostly just came to see London.  And we all got together and heard speakers talk about globalization and justice and discussed the issues that were important to us individually, and got into small groups to work on either creating an issue-based campaign or writing a policy proposal.  With my group, we wrote a proposal to propose a resolution to the UN calling for member states to give power to indigenous peoples in the creation of environmental policy.  Which we might even work more on, which would be pretty cool.  That was an interesting exercise, actually.  At conferences in the past, the focus has either been on speakers and discussions rather than projects, or on more specific mock-situation exercises.  This, on the other hand, was very open: pick an issue and create a campaign or write a policy proposal.  You have about 5 hours.  Go!  It obviously didn't come without a certain amount of frustration, compromise, and letting go, but I was amazed at what we came up with in the end.

Aside from the conference itself, though, the whole trip was just amazing and SO good for me.  I met this great group of people, who I will hopefully stay in touch with, and wandered around and went out and had an all around good time.  It's really good to break up the monotony of life sometimes, and if you are going to do it, you might as well do it right, and really make the most of it.  

I didn't have a whole lot of time for touristy stuff, because we were doing the conference for the majority of daylight hours (which there weren't all that many of), and then going pubhopping and then sleeping and doing it again.  We did do a group tour, which was a "ghost tour," where we wandered around and our guide told us about the various ghosts haunting different buildings and the really quite gruesome past of London.  It was a strange but fun experience.  On Sunday, we had the afternoon to ourselves, and went shopping on Oxford Street, and then walked along the Thames and saw Big Ben and the Eye and pretty much everything that is along the Thames from the Eye to the Tate Modern, which was SUCH an amazing museum.  

Finally, I spent the night in the Stansted airport outside of London, which was awful because it was FREEZING and there were people ever and I was trying very unsuccessfully to sleep on the cold hard linoleum floor, and then when I was finally able to go through security and found a seat at my gate, I started to doze off and almost missed my plane, but I made it home in one piece.  I spent most of yesterday in bed and slept a lot because I hardly slept most of the weekend, especially the last night in the airport, and I was mentally exhausted from the whole thing, so I took a personal day.  

And now I'm back to life as usual.  It kind of feels like London was this little blip in life that is fully separated from everything else because it was kind of in this little universe apart from everything.  Everyone spoke English and there were people from the states and I met all these cool new people and there was cream cheese and then I came back and everything was more or less the same.  And no one spoke English (ok, that's an exaggeration) and it was all people I knew and there was no cream cheese (pretty much there was no food at all in my fridge).  That makes it sound like I was disappointed to come back to Lyon, but I wasn't.  I wish the whole thing had been a little longer because I feel like I was just getting used to it when everyone had to leave.  Which is what happens at stuff like that.  I know that.  And I am happy to be back in Lyon to a place I know my way around and I don't feel like I have to be constantly on the move to see the most stuff possible in like 60 hours.  London was fun to visit, but it's definitely NOT a place I would ever want to live.

Anyway...it's way too late for me to be awake (my sleep schedule is all kinds of off...plus I had coffee at 7 to make it through one of my classes tonight....not such a brilliant idea.

So, goodnight!

Bisous.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As usual, I really should be in bed...or packing...but I am not actually that sleepy (I think I will have a different opinion as soon as I get in bed though) and I HATE packing, so here I am. I had a delicious frenchified Thanksgiving dinner (no mashed potatos, though, which was really lame) and ate WAY too much and got to see everyone, and overall it was a really good thing to have happen.

I could tell a million stories about today, actually, but in a nutshell, there is a new job, the riot police were all over my neighborhood today, and students are still protesting, I finally have the two books I needed to buy for school, bought tickets to a soccer game, and then thanksgivinginess. And tomorrow I leave for London for a Globalization Justice conference and I'm totally not ready to leave yet. But oh well.

I did want to say a little something, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, though. During dinner, we did the whole go around the table and say what you are thankful for thing. Obviously, everyone is thankful that we have the opportunity to be here in Lyon studying and experiencing all of these wonderful things. What I had to add, though, was (a) I am thankful for my great roommate (who was sitting right next to me) and (b) I am really thankful that we have the resources to stay in touch with people back home. THis has been especially important to me, what with things being so difficult back home. I can't imagine going through all of this without being able to get emails from my mom every couple of days keeping me updated, and emails from my absolutely fantastic friends (especially big shout out to G-G, who has been great at keeping my spirits up and letting me freak out to her via email/AIM), and being able to talk to people on AIM, and even being able to talk to people on the phone every once in a while. Seriously, I can't say this for sure, but I think if I wasn't so well plugged in back home, I would be having a really difficult time here. I guess that could be seen as a negative thing, but I think with the facility of it all, I really am having an amazing immersion experience and doing the France thing while still keeping my strong connections to home, and I am infinitely thankful for that. My mom keeps reminding me to keep counting my blessings, and I really am SO lucky and SO blessed. Sometimes it's hard to recognize it when I'm worrying about things back home, or not knowing if campus will be open for the test I am supposed to have in 9 hours (seriously...I'm pretty sure I have a better sense of what's going on back home than I do of what's going on with these student strikes), or dealing with the millions of paperwork details required by French bureaucracy, or trying to get everything done on time, but when I stop for a minute and realize where I am and what I'm doing and all of the resources I have (even though sometimes I feel kind of lost in it all), I really do realize just how very blessed I am.

So there you go. That's what I'm thankful for...plus the people who take the time to read this blog and put up with the rambling and silliness of my writing.

That being said, I really need to get back to the reality of leaving tomorrow and not knowing exactly where I am going...and maybe studying some portuguese...

*bisous* and TONS of love

Power Rangers!!

I really should be asleep, because apparantly I have a job interview in 8 hours...but whatever. Lots of thoughts, not very tired, therefore I shall stay up. I just decided that I'm not very good at this whole travel blog thing...or maybe blog thing in general. My brain just does not hold a train of thought very well at all. And, instead of telling some contiguous story about something that happened to me, I have all these really short stories that I want to tell that don't really have anything to do with each other except that they are things that have happened in my life lately or things I have thought about (can you tell this blog is going to be like that?)

First of all, when I was walking home tonight, there was this group of people that we passed and two of them were dressed vaguely like power rangers, and one of them ran past us making strange noises. And then we passed the rest of them, and the second guy in a power rangers costume was like, "he's not with us". It was good for a laugh.

I just realized that this post is completely capable of being a contiguous story, because all of the stuff I want to write about basically revolves around today, but I'm just not in a state of mind to write it that way, so it's a little helter skelter (which reminds me, my friend Maxime LOVES to sing Beatles songs all through my constitutional law class, whih is pretty much the coolest thing ever. That kid never ceases to make me laugh).

Today, my roommate invited a couple friends over and we had a delicious vietnamese/taiwanese lunch which was prepared by all 5 of us smashed into our tiny kitchen and it was AMAZING. Wei Ching's friend is from Vietnam, so she came over to make nem, which are fried spring rolls, and then Wei Ching made soup and...BOBA. It was so exciting, although she kind of hadn't cooked it all the way, but I didn't even care. For those of you who don't know, boba are these little balls of tapioca, and you put them in drinks and they are just really amazing and I love them. It's actually a specialty from Taiwan, but has gotten pretty popular in the states, but basically does not exist here. Except that Wei Ching's friend had some from Taiwan. YES. Basically, lunch was a giant success and made for a really great afternoon.

EVERYTHING smells like cigarettes. Seriously, every time I go out I come home reeking of cigarette smoke. It's in my hair and my clothes and it's just icky. Even after a nice long shower and clean PJs, I can still smell it. Berk! I cannot WAIT until January when the smoking ban goes into effect (sorry Napoleon, I know you are anti smoking bans, and as much as I love you, I do not appreciate having my entire wardrobe smell like smoke).

Despite the unfortunate odor that comes from going out, I have been having a lot of fun on those occasions when I go out. Tonight, I went out with Wei Ching, her friend Mathilde, and Mathilde's friend, whose name I never completely got. Anyway, we just went to this bar to hang out and have a beer and watch the soccer game (France v Ukraine...which ended in a tie and was really a pathetic, very uneventful game). It was a nice little girl's night out, and I think it will become a weekly tradition. Yay!

OH! They are opening a Starbucks in Lyon soon. Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about this, but I do have to say that I really miss big lattes and cafe's with big comfy couches. Silly, I know, but it's one very american thing that I miss. I mean, there is only so much pleasure that you can get out of a cup of coffee that is gone in two sips. Even if it's really good coffee.

Um...I think that is all of the discongruousness that I can think of for now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!

*MUAH*

mmmmmargaritas!

Ok, there are about a million thoughts swimming around in my head (partly because they get to swim around in tequila...that makes my thoughts more active and swimmy), so I'm going to go list style and hope I catch them all. Sorry if they aren't in a very understandable order. I'm going with whatever pops into my head first.

--It is SO much warmer in Lyon than in Clermont-Ferrand, where I was visiting my friend Dia this weekend. While I have said that I can handle pretty much any kind of weather that doesn't include wind, I think I will take Lyon's windiness over C-F's icy frozen death.

--It was really good for me, emotionally, to go to C-F and to visit Dia. Partially, it was good for me to get out of Lyon (and especially to get out of my room) and do something new, but it was also really good to see an old friend who knows me really well still. It's funny the way you can pick up with someone after two years of being apart and just be able to be great friends again.

--My dad called me today and it made me SOOO happy!!! And I got to talk to my sister, which is always quite an experience, because, while she is an avid talker, there aren't always full sentences, and it doesn't always make a ton of sense. My dad did say that she has been working on her three-syllable words, namely exercise (and jumping jacks, which she is a big fan of) and chocolate. Sounds to me like two important words. Especially chocolate, but I suppose if that is a word you are going to pick up at the age of 3, it's probably a good idea to do some jumping jacks too. I totally adore that kid, and I hate that I really only see her a couple weeks out of the year. But that was a really exciting thing to come home to this afternoon.

--I spent the weekend talking to Dia about how much we miss mexican food and margaritas, and then this morning I got a message from my friend Katie inviting me to dinner with her and some of our friends and her parents, who are visiting from California. And we went to a mexican restaurant (the same one I went to a while ago with Florence...only a different location) and drank margaritas and ate mexican food. I maintain that their salsa is terrible and there were no refried beans and it was not at all spicey, but the guacamole was decent, and the food itself is actually quite good. And it was just a fun night all around. Very homey. Although I do plan to hit up every good mexican restaurant I can come up with as soon as I get home.

--The French are still striking. I had to take buses to and from C-F this weekend (although I made it no matter what, just like I promised) because the rail workers are still on strike, and Lyon 2 (where I take capoeira and portuguese) is still blocked, at least until Wednesday, when there is going to be another meeting to decide what to do.

--In 4 days I will be in LONDON!

--I really need to buy some wintery clothes, namely leg warmers (yes mom, leg warmers...I know I always used to hate them, but my legs get cold under my jeans...and I need them for the crazy jumping down to our knees stuff that my jazz teacher has decided would be fun) and tights and more long-sleeved shirts and more scarves and hats and gloves and quite possibly some boots. I really am not prepared for this cold weather at all.

--3 margaritas makes me very sleepy, so I shall stop here. Goodnight!!

*bisous*

Wind SUCKS

It is officially COLD. 18 years of winter in the desert (even with last year's 3 feet of snow) has done nothing to prepare me, much less my wardrobe, for being here. And it's only November. This morning, walking the 3 blocks to the laundrette, I almost froze to death. And the viciously cold wind didn't even slow down before ripping through my fleece jacket, long sleeve shirt, and tank top. Really, I think I could handle the cold if the wind weren't moving it around all the time (aren't things in motion supposed to warm up??)

To complain just a little bit more before I move on, the railworkers are still striking and I am gonna be a very unhappy camper if I can't get out of Lyon to visit my friend, Dia, this weekend.

I have been really unmotivated to write lately. For one thing, I guess not much has been going on here over the past couple of days, and for another, things have been kind of rough. I don't want to go into it, but I will say that I am a little frustrated by the fact that life is continuing on without me back home, and it makes it hard for me to focus on being here, no matter how many times people tell me that I should...that I shouldn't dwell on something I can't change, and that it's going to be better, or at least ok. I'm not very good at accepting change in my life at times like these.

So there you go. No exciting Francey stories for now. Basically, I've just been doing the same old thing...going to class, avoiding studying with every ounce of myself, spending a lot of time at home because it's too cold to spend too much time outside, making/eating yummy food, watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls online, and dealing with homesickness and grief...and trying to pick out and focus on the beauty.

The French are doing what they do best...

...striking (VERY important French vocab word: grève).

The rail workers are striking against the conditions for retirement, students are striking because they don't want universities to be independently funded, and apparantly a number of other unions are preparing to strike as well (for example, we have been warned of possible power outages due to the strikes), as far as I can tell for similar reasons as the railworkers.

I really don't know what to think. I was talking today with Laurie, the director of the Centre Oregon, and later with Barbara, who runs the Penn program, and both of them seemed pretty frustrated by the student strikes, even though they more or less agree with the precedent. As Laurie said, though, really all they end up doing is hurting themselves, because they miss out on classes that they will have to make up at some point.

It's quite an experience to be here with all of this going on, and tomorrow should be interesting...the students are going to block the train stations in solidarity with the railworkers (whose strike starts on Wednesday) and I'm sure there will be protests and the like going on this whole week. I will post more when I have a better idea of how this whole thing is working out. And hopefully I will manage to form more of an opinion than "grrr...I need to take a train this weekend to go visit my friend. What the hell french railworkers??" or "well, I'm glad that I don't have to take my portuguese midterm this week, but I don't think I'm going to want to study any more next week than I do right now"

Anyway, that is the state of things in France right now...or at least what I know of the state of things. In my personaly life, I had a fabulous weekend, and ended up hanging out with two girls that I met in the TOEFL class, so I'm really glad I did that. I had a total blast that included coming home at 3 am two nights in a row, teaching Europeans american drinking games, listening to Manu Chao, eating bulgarian cheese, really drunk guys dancing on a flaming bar, a pirate themed bar, a guy who reminded me of Hugh Grant, and riding a bike home in the rain. I think that is all the REALLY important stuff. Oh! And can't forget the piercing party witha couple girls from Penn, which was followed by some really delicious (and expensive) hot chocolate. And now I am back in reality, and I spent the day avoiding going to the library because I'm really not even entirely sure what I need to be doing, but I feel like I should be studying because I have 4 tests in the next 4 weeks, two of which will constitute my ENTIRE grade for they classes they are in. All I ended up accomplishing today was buying flash cards and a few other schooly supplies that I was in need of, and making a zillion portuguese flashcards.

Oh! Speaking of going shopping today (this is totaly ridiculous, but it made me happy), I also bought a tea ball that is in the shape of a tiny tea pot and comes with a little tray that you can set it on. I've been wanting to buy loose leaf tea lately, but was having a really hard time finding a tea ball, and I finally found this one and it was so cute...I just had to.

So there you go...and now I need to go to sleep because the slightly elitest political science students are not striking tomorrow, so I still have 7 hours worth of class. Yay.

Bisous.

beauty

I have to keep this short because I am going out with some friends tonight, so, as usual I am forgoing all of the things that I have been meaning to write about all day (but I was too busy sleeping in and getting my cartilage pierced again). There was a moment today that I really wanted to write about though, which I would like to dedicate to my mamacita, who, in one of the most touching and wonderful emails I've ever gotten, reminded me that spending time in nature helps to heal emotional pain, which I've been struggling with a lot lately.

Unfortunately, it has been entirely too cold to spend significant amounts of time outside, but while I was walking to the metro today, I had a moment of peace. Often, when going to this particular metro stop, I take the tram because it's faster and easier, but on the weekend the wait between trams is pretty long, and I didn't feel like waiting, so I decided to walk. I have to cross the Rhône river to get to the metro, and I love crossing the bridge because you get a really nice view of the river and the buildings along the quais. Today, what with the weather being crappy, it looked very hard and kind of industrial, which was accentuated by construction. At first, my thought was, ugh...but I stopped to look up the river and realized that it was really beautiful. There are trees all along either side of the river, and they are all a really gorgeous amber fall color, and the whole thing was like the perfect fall/almost winter day. It was almost like looking at a sepia-toned photograph because of the colors of the trees, and because everything was sort of washed out because there wasn't any sunlight (only the light filtering through LOTS of clouds.

Silly me, I forgot to charge my camera, so I couldn't take a picture. Although I kind of doubt I could have captured the moment because a lot of the beauty was in my realization that, if you just look for it, the beauty--natural beauty--is there, even in the middle of the city. It was a very "American Beauty" sort of moment.

Anyway, I'm off. Just needed to write that.

Bisous.

In the words of Ice Cube, today was a good day

After staying up late watching a movie last night, I had a grasse matinée sort of morning (ie I slept in), although I was planning on running some errands this morning. Oh well. Then I went to Part Dieu--the ginormous mall in Lyon--to meet Florence, the girl from the TOEFL class. While I was standing outside waiting, and hoping I was at the right entrance, this girl came up to me and asked if I was Terra. Turns out she was Florence's friend, who was also having lunch with us. So we chatted for a little while waiting for Florence. She was so nice! Then, when Florence showed up, we headed into the mall, which was packed, strangely enough, being Thursday afternoon. Claudine suggested this Mexican restaurant, and we headed there.

As a side note, I haven't gone to any Mexican restaurants in Lyon since I've been here because I had a bad experience 3 years ago in Paris, and because, as most of my friends know, I am kind of snob when it comes to Mexican food (it happens when you grow up in New Mexico...deal with it). But I figured that I would go for it because Florence and Claudine seemed into it. As it turns out, it wasn't terrible, with the exception of the salsa, which I'm pretty sure consisted solely of tomatos and sugar (why? I have no idea). Anyway, I had a quesadilla, which had cheddar cheese! Anyway, all around, it was a successful experience after I made the decision to lower my expectations on the food a little bit. And it was really nice to just chat in a "girlfriends" kind of atmosphere.

After lunch, Claudine had to go home, and Florence and I went to the Centre Oregon office to check out the course catalogs and ask Laurie some questions about studying in the states. As it turns out, if she makes it into the study abroad program, she will probably be at OSU because it fits her field of study, which is kind of a bummer cuz I was kinda hoping she would be at U of O, but that's ok. So we were there for a while looking through the course catalogs, which were pretty overwhelming for her, because it is such a different system, and afterward we came back to my apartment to hang out a little more and eat carrot cake. She is really sweet and I'm so glad I met her!! Even though I have a number of people in my classes that I talk to and get along well with, it's really been kind of frustrating that outside of class I've been feeling more or less friendless (with the exception of Wei and other americans, who are all way cool). But I think she and I could become very good friends. Yay!

I really should go to capoeira tonight, but I really just have not been in the mood this week (I kinda ditched my jazz class yesterday...oops) plus it's a really late class that lasts until 10:20, and it's pretty far away, so I think I'll just chill for tonight and go tomorrow night. Maybe I'll even spend some time studying portuguese, since I haven't had class in two weeks and we have a test next week...oh wait, my book STILL hasn't friggin arrived. grr!

So, um...the past couple of days...yesterday, like I said, I ditched my dance class because on Tuesday night I went to a soirée put on for the international students and the IEP (the political science school). It was a lot of fun, and quickly turned into a packed dance party in the very small space of the bar we were in. At first, they were playing rap and reggaeton (!! I was SO happy that there were some students from Mexico there to offer up their iPods), so I was a happy camper, but it evolved into too loud techno and too many people squished into too little space for Terra, so I left around midnight. It took me a while to get home because the metros/tramways don't run very often late at night, and by the time I actually made it to sleep, it was almost 1:30, and when I woke up the next morning, I was very much not in the mood to dance...slash deal with my dance teacher who always kind of borders on too much energy and too loud. So I was sitting in the kitchen drinking tea, and Wei came in and started making sushi (well, technically, maki) and we were chatting and I just decided not to go because I was quite content helping with the sushi-making process.

Then, yesterday afternoon, I decided to make carrot cake, which I have been craving like crazy. Unfortunately, cream cheese doesn't exist here, so I had to fudge the frosting a little bit, and I think the batter was a little too liquidy because it came out a little strange, but all in all, it tasted pretty darn good, if I do myself. And it was successful with everyone but the boys (Paul and Mathias). I can't complain, though...I didn't like carrot cake when I was little either.

Anyway, that's my life over the past couple of days. Things are definitely going better on the homesickness front. I talked to my mom on the phone for a while the other day, which helped immensely, and I've been keep myself much more busy, which helps keep the sadness at bay. Oh, and I have to make a shout-out to GG (you know who you are...I'm totally stealing Napoleon's use of codenames in his blog cuz it makes me feel cool) who has been sending me music daily the past couple of days and it totally makes my day every time. Love ya girl!

And I'm off.

Gros bisous.

intellectualisticness

I have seriously thought of about amillion things I wanted to blog about today, but I was busy pretty much all day. And then, after dinner, when I had planned on writing (about a whole new subject from all the ones I had come up with during the day), Florence invited me to watch a movie with her. Slash she wanted to use my computer to watch it cuz apparantly the DVD player is brokeded. Anyway, long story short, it's now almost 1 am, so I'm going to bed and I hope that I can retain all my thoughts from the day for tomorrow. Or at least the important ones.

But, before sleepy-time, I did want to share something quick that the movie made me think of (we watched a documentary on Salvador Allende, btw, in case you were wondering). Since being here, I've watched a number of movies in Spanish with French subtitles, and I have to say my brain is always totally overwhelmed by them. I know enough Spanish that part of my brain tries to concentrate on understanding what I hear, but at the same time I have to read the subtitles to fill in the gaps, and the subtitles are in French, so I really have to read them and think about what I am seeing. It's an intense mental workout, let me tell you.

Anyway, that being said, I am going to bed because my brain is very much over all the mental strain.

Bonne nuit!

pick-up line

--Did you know that your father is a robbery?
--No, I didn't. Why do you say that?
--Because he stole all the stars from the skies and put them in your beautiful eyes.

Awww. I especially love that he said robbery instead of robber. It's the cute french way of being just a little bit off when they speak english...makes everything that much more endearing. Pretty much made my day.

so THAT'S how to make friends in France...

So I'm realizing that my skills with the English language (what with being a native speaker and all) can be a useful way to make friends. I'm clearly not abouve exploiting people's desire to speak my language as a way to buy their friendship.

Like I said a couple of posts back, I went to the TOEFL class and had received an email from one of the girls. Well, we are having lunch together on Thursday and seems excited to hang out and chat. And I am too! She seems really nice and interesting and has very good taste in music, so that is a plus too. And, even better, she will likely be at U of O next year, so we can keep in touch over the summer and I can pay her back by introducing her to my friends and inviting her to hang out with us...and I'll have someone to speak French with. Really it's just win-win all over the place. It was kind of awkward at the time, but Barbara's stressing that it's really hard for us American kids to make friends may have paid off. Woot. Also, today before my capoeira class started, one of the girls asked me if I would mind helping her with her english because she is also preparing for the TOEFL (and at Lyon 2 there is no prep class. Bummer). So anyway, I gave her my number and told her to give me a call and I would be happy to help her out.

On a similar and amusing note, a couple of weeks ago in my constitutional law class, one of the guys came up to me and sat down, and in a kind of messy mélange of English and French, explained to me that he had a pick-up line in English that he wanted to use on me: "Has your father ever told you that you are like a robbery?" That's how it started but I didn't get to hear the end, because he got all self-conscious about his English and getting it right, and he told me he would do it for me another time. I'm still waiting. The French really do love to show off whatever English skills they have whenever they get the chance. At first it can be kinda frustrating because, well, I'm here to learn French, not awkwardly worded English. But then I realized that many of them wont have the opportunity to study in the states and they need to practice too. Plus it's totally adorable. I *heart* English with a french accent.

If you can't tell, I'm doing much better. I spent the morning running errands and then came home and was kind of sad and pathetic and bummy and then I took a cat-nap with Chagall and went to capoeira, which really does make me feel loads better. I was planning to go to a second capoeira class at the studio in Villeurbanne, but I ran into some friends on my way home and we ended up standing around chatting about vacations and how to get our fixes of american food (apparantly it is possible to find cheddar cheese and even decent tortillas, which is cool, although I kind of enjoy making them now...tortillas that is) and then I was going to be late and my feet were killing me, so I came home and took a shower and had a nice salad and a glass of wine and have just been kind of relaxing waiting for the host family to get home so I can share the cookies from Annecy with them. What's left of the cookies, anyway. I've been eating them a lot.

I've been talking to a few other people, and I think everyone is kind of in a period of serious homesickness and questioning the intelligence of deciding to spend a whole year away from home. The initial novelty of being here is kind of starting to wear off for everyone and we are all realizing that it's not just a vacation. That we really are here to live our lives for a year and all the differences that we joked about at first become really frustrating. Even little stuff like not being able to make Mexican food just right because pinto beans don't exist and not being able to go to Target to get all the things we want and the fact that the dollar sucks so bad right now, so shopping is kind of depressing. I'm sure we will all come out of it soon. I know it will help me to see people from home, and I have a number of people that are coming to visit me or will be in Europe sometime in the future...just making plans has brightened my spirits a little bit.

So, even though I've been in a bit of a slump lately, I realize that life goes on and it's time to start counting my blessings instead of worrying about the negative stuff. Easier said than done at times, but that's my mission for the moment.

*MUAH*

a short message of love

I don't really have much to say because I've been a bit of a bum the past couple of days. Mostly because I've been feeling very homesick and lethargic. So basically this post is a "dear everyone who reads this, I miss you" sort of post.

Also, I'm realizing that there are about a million things I should have accomplished during this past week of vacation that I didn't...because of the lethargic and homesick bit. I always kind of start doing something and then it gets too complicated and I end up doing random internet surfing...basically looking for ANY excuse to escape whatever is being difficult. It's ridiculous, really.

Seriously, though, modern society is SO complicated. I have spent like 3 hours trying to figure out the best way to go to London for this Globalization and Justice conference without spending way too much money, and in a way that fits into my schedule. My head is seriously spinning and I'm still not entirely sure what my plan is. And that stresses me out even more. And then I do sill things like trying to find out how much it would cost me to go home for a week, even though I know that, while that sounds nice, it is more or less out of the question and probably would make things worse. And then I get more homesick. And now I'm gong to bed in an attempt to get away from all of this.

I will try to write tomorrow after my capoeira class(es) because that always puts me in a much better mood.

Back to the whole point of this post...to my amazing family and friends back home who read this, I love you so much more than I can express right now and I miss you like crazy.

Best sobering up method EVER:

Excercise.

Seriously. 30 minutes on a bike and you're good to go.

Disclaimer: Do not use this method if you start out too drunk to ride a bike and make sure you know where you are going before you hit the road.

It doesn't have to look pretty as long as it tastes good

That is Wei's and my new slogan. We have been cooking a lot and, while the outcome isn't always the most beautiful thing, it has all been very tasty. This weekend, we went to a soirée at one of Wei's friend's houses, and we made a quiche that kind of fell apart when it came out of the pan, but everyone really liked it, so it was a success. The next day, we made nem, which are spring rolls. They kind of fell apart in the frying process, but we ate them anyway and they were very tasty. Today we made fresh spring rolls (the not fried kind). They were even kind of pretty, and VERY yummy. I think they are probably one of my favorite foods, and I've been missing eating them a lot lately, so it was good to have them. Also, Wei made flan today, which is a little over-cooked on top and a little too liquidy on the inside, but it tasted very yummy. Hence the new catch-phrase.

On the not ugly food side, yesterday we found the most amazing cookie store. It was like heaven. You picked out a little decorative tin and then there were bins with about 15 different kinds of cookies and you got to fill your little tin with whatever cookies you wanted. A little pricey, but totally worth it. And they had samples. While I was standing in line, I got to taste one of the kinds of cookies, these chocolate "olives", and this other little candy thing. I think it was marzipan, but I'm not entirely sure. On top of all the deliciousness, it was the cutest little store. Which fit the town it was in. We spent the day in Annecy, which is about 2 hours from Lyon, near the border with Switzerland.

After some difficulties with buses and trains, we (Wei, my friend Robert, and myself) got there around one. We wandered around the vieille ville, which was a couple narrow streets full of shops and restaurants. There was one restaurant that was getting ready for a Halloween party and they had three ginormous jack-o-lanterns outside. Then there was a western store, with tons of different cowboy boots and a window full of belt buckles. It was a nice little splash of home in the midst of a little french mountain village. I was kind of sad that it was closed. We also checked out the chateau-turned museum, which was not terribly exciting. Then we headed down to the lake, which is gorgeous. We were told that we should do the paddle boats, but all the paddle boat places were closed (probably because it was FREEZING). So we just kind of wandered around taking touristy pictures and enjoying the beautiful views. Then, we found the amazing cookie store, and then met up with some German ERASMUS students from Lyon who had the same idea to day trip to Annecy. We wandered around some more with them before making our way back to the train station and coming home. And that was my day yesterday. It was a really nice little trip.

I'm kind of sad that I didn't do anything Halloweeny for Halloween, though. I really love Halloween, but the only places who celebrate it here are nightclubs, and I wasn't really up for going out after spending the day wandering around Annecy. A couple of my friends are having a Halloween party tomorrow, which should be fun, but I have no idea what to do for a costume. I usually raid my closet and hit up thrift stores and come up with something, but my wardrobe is much more limited here than it is at home and thrift stores aren't nearly as easy to come by. Plus, it's a lot harder to get into the spirit when you aren't surrounded by halloween decorations and there aren't mounds of pumpkins outside all the grocery stores. I definitely feel like Halloween was just another day, which is kind of sad.

Moving on, though...today is Toussaint, which inFrance is a jour férié, which means that everyone gets the dayand most stores are closed. For that reason, I stayed home and was kind of restless. I wrote a while back that Florence likes to rearrange the furniture a lot, and that it made me want to do the same. As long as I had the day to myself, and I needed to clean a little anyway, I decided to go for it. So I spent the morning redecorating. I like the way my room is now. It feels a little bit smaller, because there isn't a big space in the middle, but smaller in a good, cozy way. I think I'm going to like it.

Lastly, on Monday, I went to talk with a TOEFL class. TOEFL is the international English exam that people have to take it they want to study or work in the states. The director for the Penn program at Lyon 2 teaches the class, and she asked me if I would come talk to her students about Oregon. It was really cool to go in and talk to them. Eneryone was really nice and they asked me questions about life in the states and the differences between school here and there. I gave them all my email address after the class in case they had any other questions, and on Tuesday I got an email from one of the girls who said we should hang out sometime so that we can talk more. She seems really nice. I'm definitely glad I went and talked with the class, and Barbara (the teacher) invited me to come back and do it again sometime because she gets a new group of students every couple of months. Yay!

Ok, sorry this post is kind of random and jumps around a lot. That seems to be my life lately.

Bisous and Happy Toussaint!

Breathing a sigh of relief

Well, I'm DONE with one of two presentations for my Constitutional Law class, and it went a lot better than I expected. Having spent an hour or two yesterday freaking out and crying and trying to come up with some excuse not to do it at the last minute, I took a deep breath, sat down, and got to work. And managed to throw together a pretty decent little presentation. And then this morning in class, I decided to offer to go first just to get it over with. I was crazy nervous, so my voice was all kinds of shaky, but I managed to work my way through it and I only stumbled over my french a couple of times. When it was finally over, the teacher seemed content with what I had done and even complemented parts of my presentation. I'm not sure if he was just being nice because he felt bad for me being, not only the foreign kid, but also all by myself, or if he was really sincere, but either way, it made me feel a little bit better. I really hope that it's more of the second one because, while it's nice to get pity points every once in a while, I'm the type of person who likes to get by based on my own talents, not on handicaps. But at this point I'll take what I can get.

I also got my paper back from last week, which I was also really nervous about. This is my first graded thing since I've been here, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Also, it's kind of hard to get used to the french grading system. Basically, everything is graded out of 20 points but, unlike in the states, it is pretty rare for french students to get above a 16 or a 17. Since we are already disadvantaged, the way the grades correspond to grades back in the states is very generous. Any thing above a 12 is an A and 9-11 is a B. I got a 10 on the paper, so I am contenting myself with that. Also, most of his comments were things that made sense for the most part. Some of them I was even expecting...I really hate turning in a paper and at that very moment realizing what I did wrong. He said that if people want to do another one to get a better grade, we can, and I might, but I'm not sure if I want to stress myself out that much. I mean, a B is fully acceptable, and it's only 1/4 of my grade (God, I am SUCH an overachiever!). I guess I'll make than decision after I get my grade from my presentation today.

Anyway, I came home from my presentation and Wei was making curry and she let me have some, so I didn't have to make lunch, which was kind of nice. And the curry was pretty bomb.

There's more to say about social life and stuff, but I have to go to class, so you will just have to wait. Maybe, if I'm feeling ambitious tonight, I will make a record and have three blog posts in one day, but that seems like it might be overdoing it a bit.

Bisous.

Little Victories

So, i have a presentation to do in like 20 minutes, and I should probably be looking over my notes, but, to a large extent, je m'en fous (which is a less polite way of saying "I could care less"). I was also supposed to buy cheese from my region and bring it to class, but as it turns out, you can't buy cheddar here...or asadero, which I have hella been craving lately for some reason. Again, je m'en fous...I thought about buying emmenthal, which is basically swiss cheese, but the comté just looked so much better.

Anyway, after buying cheese, I went to the bakery to buy a baguette and it was still hot from the oven. Amazing. I was so excited. Normally when I buy it, it is fresh, but not still hot. It really just kind of made everything better.

Anyway, that's all I really wanted to say for now...I'm off to talk about the Troisième République

A plus!