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.
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