The Bike Ride That Never Happened....

Not much has happened since I last posted.  I don't really recall what I did last Saturday.  Probably groceries like I said I'd do.  Maybe some reading.  But Sunday....now that was quite a day.  Colleen and I met Emily at the Comedie, hoping to rent bikes and ride to the beach.  So, we went to the closest place and they told us they were all out of bikes, even though there were like 10 of them outside.  They must have been on hold for people, but grr, why couldn't we have them?!  So then we went to the tourist office, but you have to give them 150E just to rent one bike!  That's $200!!  You get it back afterward, but it's just not right handing over $200 for a bike you're using for half the day!  So they told us we could go to the train station and rent bikes there by just giving them an ID to keep until returning the bikes.  So we strolled over there and what do you know?  They were ALSO out of bikes!!  How does this happen?  We assume it was because it was a Sunday afternoon and since nothing much is open, everyone had the same idea as us.  But it just wasn't fair.  So we wandered back over to the tourist office (thank goodness all these places are nearby eachother) and asked about taking a bus to the beach, which really defeated the purpose: we hadn't really wanted to go to the beach just to go, we wanted to ride bikes to the beach.  But the bus idea wouldn't work out anyway because the next bus was really soon and the last bus to bring us home was in an hour from when we'd catch the bus to the beach.  We'd have to walk to the next 2 stops to get home, and we had no idea how far apart they were, or even if you could walk to them, so we didn't go to the beach.

Instead, we walked over to the Arc de Triomphe to see if we could walk up to the top (a lot of things were open that weekend because it was a Patrimony weekend or something like that), but the line was really long so we walked to the Plant Garden instead, which was absolutely gorgeous.  It reminded me of a mix between Sonnenberg Gardens and the Botanical Gardens (woot, Kelly!!  Botanical Gardens!!).  Then we went into the old Medical School because it had some old books on exhibit, which was pretty cool.  Emily read Dante in it's original form, so she felt very accomplished!!  Then we went inside the Cathedrale: it was massive and gorgeous!!  I would actually love to see a mass in there.  And yes, I did just say I would like to see a mass.  Haha, please don't all die of shock.  It's just that the cathedrale was absolutely gorgeous and I can only imagine it when it's filled up with people.  Or imagine a wedding!!  How pretty!!

Afterward we wandered around, ran into Maria and Arielle again (who we'd already seen at the Plant Garden), and then said our goodbyes.

This week has just been school school school.  What fun!!  Not really, though....  It went by so slow, probably the slowest week since I got here, even slower than the first week!!  Hopefully it picks up a little, geez!  I mean, France is great and all, but I want to be with my love and my Mocha and my family :)  My classes are going well.  However, by the hour and a half mark of my 3 hour classes I can no longer focus.  And then I'm completely exhausted afterward, even though I didn't do a damn thing!!  I've had 3-hour long classes at Buff State (Zola, for example), but a) Zola was a 5-person class so you were always involved in the conversation, and b) my speech class was half lecture, then the second half people giving speeches, which was entertaining.  But when someone tries going on for 3 hours about the basics of religious anthropology, you almost want to kill yourself.  I'm sure I'll get a bit more used to it.  Thursdays are the worst, though, just because it's 2 3-hour poetry classes.  I know everyone must be wondering at this point if I am intentionally trying to torture myself, and the answer is no.  They just both happened to transfer over to Buff State perfectly and had to be on the same day.  I'm so glad I have off Wednesdays to relax before my day of hell!!  At least my last class, Comparative Literature (Shakespeare and Petrarch....blah!!) keeps me up a bit more because the teacher is Justin Sane's older doppelganger and I am actually quite interested in analyzing English poems in my French class.  Haha.  I feel bad for those French students having to read Shakespeare in English, though, because that's even difficult for me.

So then yesterday Emily and I went out for our weekly lunch of crepes.  We are regulars now, and the waitress knows us and even asked us if we were students or just living here for fun or for jobs.  When we walk in she greets us like friends, it's rather neat!  Then we planned on seeing a movie, but we just missed all the afternoon shows, so we went back to her place to plan daytrips and then decided that since it was raining (it rained the night before and that day!!  I was in heaven!!  I didn't even want to take my umbrella out but Emily whined a bit, so I opened it up!!) we'd go to an exhibit called Le Reve Americain (The American Dream).  It was amazing.  It had photos of America, including some of people watching the twin towers fall, which I thought was kind of weird.  Our favorite was of an older couple holding hands and crossing a street in a small town to an antique store.  Very cute.  Then there was an Elvis exhibit, where some guys dressed up as Elvis and a photographer took pictures of peoples' expressions.  It was hilarious!  If there's a book out by these guys, I'm buying it!  Then we watched some short movies, my favorite being the one about Alaska, as it showed a 2 second clip of an old-school hockey game and a 30-second clip of Don Cherry and the poor bastard that has to work with him on Hockey Night In Canada!!  I was ecstatic and Emily had to deal with it, poor thing!!  Plus, that video had snow in it and moose, so it was clearly amazing.  Another cool one was about the videographer's great grandpa who had come to Cleveland from les Cevennes in France and it was just funny because it talked about how he gambled and the first thing he won the first time he played was money, a car, and a building.  Haha.  It just had typical pictures of him and his American wife, like with the car, the bike, the house.  But it was funny because at the end it had a quote from an old lady relative back in France saying something funny.  I don't remember what it was, but we were laughing so hard.  In fact, we were laughing through all these videos because we totally understood everything, and the French people probably had no idea what we were laughing at!  The 3rd video wasn't so cool, though.  It was about druggies in NYC.  Interesting, but not as good as the other two.  Then we parted and today I just hung around, did a lot of work, talked to Carl through Skype IM for a long time and then tried to webcam it, but that didn't work, so we IMed for a long while longer, and then I made dinner, and then I talked to my wonderful family for about 5 minutes!!  And that was my week!

I love you all and hope everything is wonderful :)

Kiss Mocha for me!!

Luvvies,
Heather

Kelly was right - Aquariums are AWESOME!!!!

Not gonna lie, when Kelly said she went to the aquarium in La Rochelle a lot, I kind of asked myself, why would you want to go to the aquarium??  Not having been to one in a really long time (I don't even remember my last trip to the aquarium), I shouldn't have judged.  I went with Emily to the Montpellier aquarium today and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!  I saw seahorses (real live seahorses - they are so flexible in real life!!  They wrapped their tales around plants and napped!!), sharks, penguins, sting rays (RIP Crocadile Hunter), EELS!!, starfish, crabs, lobsters, tropical fish, and just a million amazing things!  Emily and I befriended a fishy who would come over to us everytime we went near the tank!  He had teeth and loved us!  I took a picture, so that'll be up shortly.  We also saw scary sharks with creepy teeth and 2 with saw-like noses!  Soooo cool!!!!!!!!!!!!  But my favorite parts were: a submarine-type room (I obvi took a pic of that!!) and a room that looks like you're steering the ship and there's a storm and the room rocks back and forth like you're on the ocean during the storm and there's a screen so it looks like it's pouring out and there's thunder and lightening and at one point something "came undone" and went flying into the water.  Emily couldn't be in there for long, but I loved it!  I think Daddy would have just loved it!  So yes, I love aquariums now!  I want to go back!!

We went to the aquarium today because the weather was supposed to be crappy and we didn't want to go to Carcassonne if it was crappy out.  But the sun ended up coming out!  Yes, it was chilly (yay!!), but not crappy and rainy like it was supposed to be!  So we went for lunch (crepes!!) and then to the aquarium and then I sent some postcards (finally, sorry) and then we went to Monoprix so I could buy some soap (it's orange flower and smells oh so yummy!) and another notebook for school.  Then we parted as she had a tummy ache and I was exhausted from all the aquarium excitement.  Then I talked with my darling on Skype and made dinner (pasta with bolognese sauce - amazing!).  Then I watched an episode of CSI and washed my dishes *sigh* and a french girl came in to make herself some food and said bonjour and au revoir to me!!  Lol.

So my classes went well yesterday: I had poetry of the 16th century in the morning.  We will mostly just be reading Ronsard because he spanned a long time and 3 different kings, so his style changed with the times.  The prof seems really nice and said she'll work something out for the foreigners as far as the evaluation goes.  Then in the afternoon I had comparative literature and my prof looks like Justin Sane in 15 years.  And I mean EXACTLY LIKE JUSTIN SANE!!!!  He would probably even wear the same clothes if he wasn't out in public!  Same height, same build, same voice - it's creepy!  I'm convinced it's his doppelganger, just 15 years older..  Kelly, I will try to pretend I'm texting someday and take a pic for you lol!  I'm serious, it's creepy!  He walked in and I was like "woah, now!"  Freaking crazy!!

Anywho, that class should be good.  We are focusing on praise and desire and seeing if you can write about one without the other.  So we'll read Shakespeare (parts in English!!  I feel bad for the French students lol) and some Plato and Petrarque, which works out, because in my poetry class we will be referencing Plato's Le Banquet (that's the French title, I don't know what it is in English), but not reading it.  And we'll be reading it in the other class!  And we'll be looking at Ronsard in my comparative literature class!  This works out great for me!!  It's kind of like when you pick a bunch of random classes at Buff State and they all end up talking about the same things within days of each other!

Tomorrow (Saturday), I have some plans: groceries, textbooks, purse.  I figure I'd rather get my groceries out of the way now rather than wait until half-way through the week like normal when I'm almost out of everything.  And as for textbooks, most classes only want me to get 1 or 2 cheap books and then recommend other ones for reference.  So I'll get what I need and see how much some of the reference books are and if they are cheap I'll get them, too.  For example: we don't need a book for history, but I might take a look at the 3 books he recommended in case I can't follow along well enough; I'm gonna take a look at the 16th century literary dictionary for my Ronsard class; and there's a book we'll be referencing in my comparative literature class but won't be reading, but since it might be a difficult class I think I'll get that, too.  And for Anthropology, we can choose like 3 out of 4 (I'll choose the 3 cheapest, lol) and then there's a list of other books we can look at if we want to.  So for right now, I'm just getting what I need for that class and then if I need anything else I'll either go to the school library or see what they have at Sauramps (book store).

And I would like a new purse so I don't ruin my scarf by using it as a strap.

And if I have time I'd like to get cleaning supplies to clean my room!

I hope everyone is doing well.  And I expect comments on each of these last 3 posts this weekend!!!!

Have fun boozing and cruising, Kelly *muahs*

*kissies* to my Mocha

Luvvies,
Heather

When I Get Home, I'm Never Doing Dishes Again

I always knew I hated doing dishes.  Even when I was a kid I hated it.  That's why I chose to do the household's laundry when Daddy said we had to each have our own chore to do.  I love laundry.  Dishes though....I'd almost rather die. 

So imagine me having to wash my own dishes every day....  I'm not enjoying this one bit.  I only have one dish, one bowl, one frying pan, and one sauce pan.  Which means I have to do dishes at least once a day, but sometimes twice if I cook for breakfast or lunch and then want to cook for dinner as well.  It's a royal pain in the ass.  It's what I least look forward to every single day - it's not even missing Mocha and Carl really badly before I go to bed: it's doing my dishes! 

And let me tell you, I'm not very good at it.  I feel like it takes me forever to do a few dishes.  So instead of taking up space in the kitchen, I've been doing dishes in my bathroom sink if I only have a few.  It's horrible, such a pain in the butt.  And my hands feel pruney!  And you all know how much I hate germs and I'm handling a sponge!  If I had lots of money I'd use a knew sponge every time I did dishes!

Oh my gosh, I'm getting all worked up over this now.  Let's change the subject to something else I can get worked up over: I had to buy nail polish today at Monoprix.  I swear to God I packed my red nail polish, but after searching and searching and researching for it I came to the conclusion that I left it at home.  So out I went to Monoprix to buy pink polish (cuz what girl would chose red when she can have pink instead).  Firstly, I couldn't find the perfect pink (also known at Avon's Strawberry Pink).  I ended up with super hot, shiny pink, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I wanted Strawberry Pink!!!!  And to top things off, there was no polish under 5Euros unless you wanted the tiniest little bottle of nail polish I've ever seen in my 21 years!!  Not cool!  And then I tried to find soap cuz I'm almost out and I couldn't find it.  I swear to God, Monoprix does not sell soap.  I'm gonna have to find some tomorrow.  I might have to go to the store in the mall.  Thank you Monoprix!  Thank you soooo much!

One more day of my first week of classes.  Hallelujah!  It hasn't been a bad week, but I just want to get it over with!  My schedule is looking like this right now: morning class and afternoon class Mondays and Tuesdays, off Wednesdays, morning class and afternoon class Thursdays, off Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  I had originally planned on having one class Wednesdays and one Thursdays, but I messed up the times for the literature class today so I'm going to the one tomorrow instead (it's the same class, just different times and we're reading different books).  So it works out for me.  But I feel like I'm going to have a crapload of free time.  Where is Sears when you have so much time on your hands?  They loved putting me on the schedule when I had 6 classes and mad homework to do!  I actually want a lot of homework just to pass the time, otherwise I'm gonna either be sitting around a lot or spending money going out to cafes and what-not.  Oh well, it's better than having a lot of classes, I guess.  But really, I'm finding a job right after Christmastime, I can't stand not doing anything (never thought I'd say such a thing!).

I should go to bed soon, I guess.  But my hands are still so pruney and I'm gonna have to get them wet again to get ready for bed!  Ahh I hate you dishes!!!!  If I could buy a little dishwasher that plugged into the wall, I'd be all over that shit!  $500?  Sure, no problem, here ya go!!  Wash my dishes!!

Luvvies and wish me luck in my dish washing....,
Heather

2 Day Trips and 1st Day of Classes

The point of writing that long blog last week was so that this one wouldn't be as long.  However,that's impossible as I've been extremely busy lately.  I went to beautiful Sete on Friday, followed by a magical day in Tarascon, both accompanied by the wonderful Emily.  While Sunday was terribly uneventful, today was the first day of classes, which turned out to be as perfect as classes could get.

1) On Friday, Emily and I took an early train to Sete for only 8,20Euros round trip, which is ridiculously inexpensive.  Then we saved more money by having a huge "formule" lunch for only 13,50.  It was so much food I didn't even eat dinner that night!  The food was great - I got shrimp cooked in garlic (like Mommy makes with angelhair pasta!), which was really good except for the fact that the heads with eyes and all were still attached.  So after cutting the heads off and taking the shells off I could eat in peace.  For my main dish, I got some kind of fish.  I think the French like leaving their food looking like how they caught it, because my fish looked like a fish!  So once again, after opening him up and covering the head with some other food on my plate, I ate in peace!  The only problem was that there were a million teeny tiny bones, so Emily and I had to take tiny bites to ensure that we didn't eat any!  They were the smallest fish bones I've ever seen - like the size of a piece of hair!  But it was very tasty.  With that, I also had a tomato provencal, some yellow string beans and a baked potato with a tad bit of sour cream on it.  But I dipped it in my rouille sauce, which is absolutely amazing.  It's like mayo/sour cream but better!!  For my dessert, I had Baba du rhum.  So good!!  It's a little cake cooked with rhum topped with whipped cream and mine even had a touch of strawberry syrup!  Sooooooo good!!

We also had a little adventure in Sete: we walked up a ridiculous hill and a million steps to get to the top of a little mountain where there's a huge cross and a chapel.  It's called Mont St-Clair.  And the view was just gorgeous!!  Pictures are up on Facebook :)

Afterward, we wandered over to a navette store that's been open since 1913.  I got a huge bag for 4,50 and they are absolutely amazing!  Dipping them in coffee (or nutella) is heaven!!  I might be going back just to get some for home!  We also wandered around the town for a while, which was so pretty.  However, around 5:45 we headed back to Montpellier, as we figured we'd have a long, busy day at Carcassonne Saturday.  But alas, those dreams were dashed when we discovered that the earliest train to Carcassonne on a Saturday is at 11, so we wouldn't even arrive until 1 or 2.  Then we'd have to take a 7 or 8 o'clock train back that night!  Am I wrong when I say it would be better to spend a whole day in Carcassonne?!?!  So we decided to put that off until this coming Friday (however, that dream may also be dashed as it's supposed to be one of the rare occassions where it decides to rain in southern France).  Instead, Emily and I went our separate ways and researched where we should go Saturday.  I ended up planning a little trip for when Carl comes, but Emily made a list of towns on the train line, so I looked at them and picked two and she picked two and we ended up both picking Tarascon, so that's where we went!

2) Tarascon is probably my favorite place I've visited so far, right behind Saint-Guilhem-Le-Desert.  It's a tiny little town with a castle!!  When we first arrived, we set our usual goal, which is to find the tourist office.  However, much like in Sete, we couldn't find it and got diverted elsewhere.  This time we were diverted to a castle.  It is the Chateau Royale de Tarascon, built by le Roi Rene a long time ago.  My first real Medieval Castle!!  (Avignon can't really count - it's a pope's PALACE).  So we toured this castle and I (quite literally) took hundreds of pictures.  Only a handfull are up online because I figured people would get bored with pictures of castle architecture.  So if anyone is interested you can see them when I get home (I'll probably force you to look at every single one of them even if you don't want to muahahaa). 

After the castle visit (where I ended up buying a little book about castles and a knight pen - see Facebook photo!!), we looked for lunch, but as it was around 2 o'clock, the places that were still open weren't serving food anymore!!  Lesson learned!!  Eat first, visit castle after!!!!  So we ended up going to the grocery store and buying a picnic for ourselves.  The best part was that when we were full and had half a baguette and a huge block of goat cheese left, Emily saw a homeless guy and said we should give it to him.  Afterall, it was too hot out to keep the cheese in our purses and who wants to carry a baguette around while you're exploring?!  So we gave him the food and he was so happy!  It was probably the best moment of this stay in France so far :)

Then we found the visitors center and visited a gorgeous old church (St-Marthe) which is named after the Saint who tamed or killed this monster thing that lived beneath the town and ate people!  I hope that's a true story, because it reminds me a knights slaying dragons and there is a castle!!!!  We also visited a cloister museum about this order of nuns, which was actually really interesting - they are celebrating their 400th anniversary this year - 400 YEARS!!!!  WTF?!?!  We then wandered around and saw some other sites and then finished the visit at the pastry shop!  I got a cream puff thing with honey over the top!!  SO DELICIOUS!!  More photos of that can be found on Facebook. 

So Tarascon was definitely successful.  Emily and I decided we should have that castle and if not, then a better one.  Especially since I was able to master the spiral staircases and make it all the way up to the top!!!!  And I didn't even faint!!!!

Sunday was extremely uneventful.  I talked to Carl on Skype and when we weren't webcamming, we were IMing on Skype. 

3) Classes started today!!  I was pretty nervous, not gonna lie.  I don't think I've been nervous for classes starting since freshman year of high school.  I think it's because I've always had people with me - especially at Buff State: Kelly's always been in several of my classes and we always drive in with Anna, especially the first couple of days.  So I got up extra early to get to campus extra early to make sure I could find my building and my classroom for my first class (Medieval History from 10:15-1:15).  But I lucked out - I walked into the building, and there was Maria from the presession!  We were so happy because we were both nervous and then when we sat down in the classroom, another girl named Sarah from the presession showed up, so it was much less nerveracking.  Not to mention, our prof is really nice.  He's probably in his mid-30s and is really into medieval history (which is just fine cuz I'm a total nerd when it comes to that kind of stuff!!), and he told the class that if there were any international students that we could talk to him during our 15 minute break.  So the 3 of us went to talk to him and he was awesome - he said if we have any questions, just to ask him after class or email him.  And then he took our emails so that if he gives an assignment, he can email us more instructions because he knows it might be difficult for us at first!  Yay!

My second class was Grammar, which is done by the international institute on campus.  So I was placed in the upper level based on my grades from the presession.  Maria was in that class, too!!  The prof is cool - she's probably around Mommy's age and was born in Croatia, grew up in Australia, and then has lived in Montpellier since she got a scholarship to study here for college.  She's a good prof from what I can tell, too, so that's good.  I have that class Monday and Tuesday from 2:15-3:45.  Monday's we'll be doing mostly grammar stuff and Tuesday's will be writing, so I still have a week to do homework and what-not.  Plus it gives my brain a rest, because the grammar every day for 3 weeks just about killed me during the pre-stage!!

Then I did some grocery shopping and here I am!  Tomorrow is Religious Anthropology from 9:45-12:45 and then Grammar.  I hope it's as successful as today!!

I'll try and post again by the end of the week!  Luvvies to all!

-Heather

And Finally....A Coffeemaker!!

Drum role please........I am now the proud new owner of a coffeemaker. A 10$ coffeemaker, at that. I even managed to find Maxwell House coffee at the grocery store, but after making it realized it is a) powder (I can just pour hot water over it) and b) flavored with a hint of chocolate. So while it's not the coffee I truly desire, it is surely better than no coffee at all. I'll most certainly use up this little container within a week and find something that tastes more like real coffee. I believe the coffeemaker is also part of the problem. For one thing, it is no cuisinart. It's a proline.... For another thing, after running water through it to clean it out and get the new-plasticky taste/smell out of it about 4 or 5 times, it still has just a hint of that new-plasticky taste/smell to it. Oh well. My life is still better with the "coffee" I have than no coffee at all.

So let's see, what have I been up to since I last posted.

On Sunday, the pre-session enjoyed our final moments together at Saint-Guilhem-Le-Desert. It is a beautiful medieval town nestled in the mountains. If anyone ever gets to the south of France, this is a must-see. I have a gazillion photos up of facebook, if anyone wants to see. I spent that day with my good friend Emily Bates, wandering around the streets, stopping in a little bakery for some lunch, taking lots of photos, wandering in and out of boutiques (mostly selling jams and different culinary masterpieces, which are Emily's favorite type of shops). We also had the most French experience we will probably ever have: we stopped for some ice cream at a little 'Y' in the road. I got vanilla (real vanilla) and Emily got melon sorbet (a big thing here - and a tastey one, too!!). We took a seat nearby on a ledge off someone's porch and music started to play! And not just any old music: a man was winding an old music-box thing as he fed paper with notches punched out through it. It played what must have been a really really really old French folk song. What made it so French, though, was that every single person walking by sang along as they passed. And it wasn't just old people - young people were singing at the top of their lungs, too. My favorite part was when an old woman came out of her house across from us to walk her dog and as she stepped outside she began to sing her heart out. And everyone was so happy and had huge smiles on their faces. It was so French and so small medieval village! It was probably one of the best experiences of my life!

After this, Emily and I wandered around for a bit longer. She "stole" a fig off a fig tree and then we had to meet the group for a trip to the Abbaye de Gellone. It was a gorgeous old church. We got to go into the basement to see the tomb of the founder of the church and village. We also saw the organ from the 18th century and the relics of St-Guilhem (including something about Charlemagne!!). And I lit a candle for Gramma, so hopefully she feels better soon : )

Afterward, we all went to the Pont du Diable which is a bridge from the 11th century. We got to swim in the icy cold water beneath it!! Quite the experience!!

Emily and I got some souvenirs: postcards for tout le monde and some pottery: I got a gorgeous new coffee mug that I'm saving for some really good coffee.

Before I write another word, I have to charge my camera battery, as Emily and I have decided to take a day-trip to Sete tomorrow.

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On Monday, I met Emily for lunch at Comedie. We walked around forever trying to find the perfect (inexpensive) cafe. We finally found one near Montpellier I (university) and the Louis Blanc tramstop. It was called 26ieme or something like that and really good and cheap. I got a huge sandwich on a baguette with lettuce, tomatoes, chevre, and some other kind of cheese and of course a coke. After that, we went to campus to look at classes which turned out to be really frustrating and then even more frustrating when we ran into Colleen who said she found everything perfectly. Not fair. Then it turned out that everything was listed online finally, anyway. Jerks. I want online registration! And I can't even register myself for my last semester of college!! UUGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!

I also got to talk to my love on Skype. It was wonderful.

Monday night was wonderful: it stormed! I mean thunder, lightning, rain, the whole thing! I was so excited because it reminded me of home, as the forecast for home was stormy stormy stormy!! And it stormed here, too! Crazy!

On Tuesday, I was planning on doing laundry and then decided I'd let the dirty clothes keep piling up for a while, as doing laundry is expensive. So that'll wait for a little while longer. I'm slowly running out of clean clothes, however. This is partially do to dropping undershirts in puddles of dirty water on my bathroom floor after showering and partially due to somehow managing to get toothpaste stains on my shirts that just don't look very nice at all and won't come out with some nice hot water. And of course there is the splatter from my scrambled eggs. I never realized how messy I can be until I don't have a washer and dryer 5 feet from me at all times. Especially a brand new washer and dryer that sings to you when the load is finished. Gosh how I miss my laundry duties at home. And that is not sarcasm. It's straight up truth. Anyway, instead of that, Colleen sent me an im on Skype saying that she and Emily wanted to go out for pastries and tea/coffee and wanted to know if I would like to join in. Of course I did, as it wasn't storming like I had hoped, just blustery and chilly outside. So Colleen and I took the super crowded tram (thanks to the national strike that made the trams run much less often than normal) where we had to get off at the stop before Comedie (le Corum, again thanks to the greve), where we had to climb the neverending staircase and were out of breath by the time we met Emily in front of Louise (ice cream!!). We had planned on going to a moroccan tea room near Antigone, but it was closed for some dumb reason so we wandered around for a while before settling on a pastry shop near Emily's host mom's house. While there was no coffee/tea, I did manage to have the best treat in the world: a thick, fudge-like cake with chocolately syrup all over it, decorated with white chocolate drizzle. Yum!! Best dessert ever!! That night it stormed again (awesomeness) and rained like crazy. In fact, the parking lot in front of Triolet is still flooded. I'm glad Henrik's not in that parking lot!!!!!!!!

On Wednesday, what did I do? Oh yes - my group (C) had to meet Soumiya from the International Relations office to discuss choosing classes. That took up a good hour and a half of my morning and then I was trapped in my room with a migraine (first French migraine) for about an hour. Then I decided to venture out on a quest for a cheap coffeemaker. I ran into my next-door neighbor Bronwyn (it's a Gaelic name, in case you were wondering, and no, she's not Irish, she's American) and she said one of the other girls found one at Odysseum, which is a mall about 30 minutes away via the tram. I didn't want to venture that far out after my migraine, so I thought maybe I'd have some luck at the mall at the Comedie. No such luck. I also figured that since I was there, I'd look for a new purse, as I don't want to ruin my scarf using it as a strap, but had zero luck there as well. Oh well! The rest of yesterday was pretty uneventful except for talking to Carl on Skype, talking to Mommy for a bit before our connection was lost (*tear*), and then talking to Gramzabelle. Emily and I were going to try and meet to discuss a weekend getaway, but that never happened, as she was trapped shopping with a very indescisive friend! Poor Emily!

Today was a good day. I have all my classes picked out: Medieval History, Comparative Literature, Advanced Grammar (for foreigners muahaha), French Poetry (mainly focusing on Ronsard), and Religious Anthropology (which will be exactly the same as Buff State's Religion, Magic, and Culture class based on the course description). I also got a reply from Leann Grace at the Buff State Study Abroad Office saying that all these classes will count toward credits and that she emailed Dr. Raffel and he said I can use Medieval History and Religious Anthropology to finish my minor requirements! Yay! So that was a success. My French credits will also be taken care of, but I'm 100% positive I'll still be taking a French course or 2 (depending on what's offered) next semester just for fun (and to use up my remaining elective credits)!! Leann Grace also said I shouldn't even need to fill any forms out for the non-major courses, because she said the email trail we compiled over the last few days should be all the proof we need!! Yay!! Life seems so easy sometimes : )

I met Emily at Comedie at noon and we walked toward Antigone for lunch at a creperie. It was so adorable - like a little farm house out in the country!! I loved it! Even better, it was delicious and affordable!! And I had my first cafe creme (be proud KK!!). It was the best! Not the best like coffee at home is the best, but the best in France ; ) Then we went to Emily's host mom's place, who I met and is very sweet, and we looked at train info after deciding to go to Carcassonne. Then we went to the train station to see if we could buy our train tickets in advance, but you can't do that if you have a discount, which Emily has, so we have to buy our tickets before we leave Saturday morning, which is fine. Afterward, we decided we might as well make the best of no classes (and ridiculously cheap train tickets) and go to Sete tomorrow. We won't leave until 11 because it's only a 20 minute train ride. Plus, we want to save all our energy for the beautiful fortified city of Carcassonne on Saturday!! I'll take lots of pictures to post of facebook and write about our adventures in a blog next week.

Has anyone been printing these to show to Gramzie? Also, has anyone been able to show her some of my pictures? I want her to read these and see my pictures so she knows that I'm enjoying myself. I'm also missing her and Mocha lots. (I'm obvi missing everyone lots, don't worry, but I feel like I have to mention them specially).

One more thing: I dreamt last night that I was filthy rich and was going into every single store in some high-class mall and buying every single item I thought Mommy would want because she deserved it all. I had a million shopping bags in my hands and was holding tons more items that I wanted to buy her. I hope it's a sign of things to come! But I would first and foremost pay off the house/credit cards, and then I'd buy her a house wherever she wanted and decorate the whole thing with lighthouses!! Now I just have to find a way to become filthy rich. I think Carl needs a nice promotion ; p

I love you all! I'll write again soon. Until then, just follow my posts of facebook to know what I'm up to day-to-day!

Kissies *speciall major-kissies to Mocha, cuz it's major-kissie-time*

Luvvies so much
Heather

"Home-cooked" Dinner + Getting Lost On Campus

I'm sitting on my bed, sipping some pink wine and listening to "Chelsea" by Mest....and a bunch of tweens playing basketball and being noisy....at 10:12 at night. Gotta love the Cite Triolet!

It's been a pretty good day: I had classes from 9-12:30 as usual, and then I went back to my room to have lunch. Then around 2, Emily and I walked back to campus because we had to sign something in the International Relations office for registration. The thing was, we couldn't quite remember which building the lady's office was in. So after roaming around for half an hour, most of it in the wrong building, we managed to find the right one. That taken care of, we walked to the St. Eloi tram stop and went into town. We decided to get postcards, and ran into two girls from orientation, Maria and Arielle. So we went together to a bookstore near Place de la Comedie that Emily remembered had cheap postcards. I got a couple, so be excited! They should be in the mail by next week (fingers crossed!!). This bookstore is amazing, by the way. There are like 4 floors of books and the top floor is all music and movies. And records, too, so Jake would probably love it (although it's mostly French musicians). I couldn't resist buying 3 books, however two of them were kind of necessities: a student cookbook! and a French comic book making fun of George Bush!! I'll try and upload a pic of it to facebook next week ;) I can totally see them doing a random suitcase check for me on my way back home haha. The 3rd book I got is a novel (in english) called In Our Strange Gardens by Michael Quint. It's about kids during WWII. I got all that and the postcards for around 10Euros, so yay!! I was smart, too, and didn't go out for the usual 50% off crepe night dinner. But that's why I won't buy anything next week!!

After wandering around with Emily for a while (which included going into a cheese shop that smelled like every kind of cheese in the world except for cheddar), we returned to the Cite and decided to make dinner together. This was a brilliant idea, as I never would have figured out the kitchen by myself. There are buttons on the wall you have to press and lights go on, but it only lasts a couple of minutes....it's complicated to say the least. Plus, Emily has dish washing fluid and I have yet to buy some. So it all worked out. She cut up some veggies for herself to make a little carrott-potato saute in olive oil, and I made couscous with roquefort cheese mixed in. We learned that we only need the tiniest bit of water and couscous for one helping. But I was apparently hungry enough to eat the entire plate, so I guess it worked out okay!

Now that I know how to use the kitchen, I plan on cooking a lot more. For instance, at least on the weekends I would like to make pancakes or crepes or eggs or something. And for lunch, an omelette or grilled cheese sandwich would be amazing. And I'll have plenty of pasta, rice, couscous, and veggies for dinner. It's kind of exciting planning your meals out, until you have to decide what you need to buy at the grocery store! Then it gets kind of stressful! But I'll get the hang of it!

After dinner, I went back to my room to study and opened (with only slight difficulty) my bottle of wine (yes, the same bottle that's been sitting in my fridge for the last 2 weeks). It's not bad, but it's no white zinf ;p

Tomorrow is a test for civilization, which will be easy. Today I had a test in my culture class, which was just listening to a phone conversation and selecting the correct answers. I was surprised at how easy it was. I'm glad, though!! Then on Saturday are final evaluations and possibly the beach and then dinner with Elodie and Floralie (the monitrices). And of course on Sunday we are going to St-Guilhem-Le-Desert. Then it's registration week!!

I'll keep everyone updated. I love you all. Please send my love to Gramma and Mocha. And if possible, let Gramzie read these!!

Luvvies forever,
Heather

IKEA, Strikes!, & Olives!!

So I have so much to tell everyone. I really should just post a short blog every night instead of having to go through the last couple of days and write a novel. Sorry!! But this is what you get!!

So I mentioned that I went grocery shopping: I bought some apples, bananas, pain au chocolat (haha Kelly!), cookies, rice, couscous, bread, cheese, mustard, jam, and apple juice. Plus I get a baguette for ,80 Euro every day or so on the way back from classes. I'm gonna get some pasta, sauce, peanut butter (which is really hard to find here!), tomatoes, and lettuce when I go next, which will probly be next week, unless I get out there tomorrow or Friday. We shall see. I need KK's advice on what to cook, though. I'm prob gonna do Couscous a lot cuz a little goes a long way, and I can cut up tomatoes and cheese for that. I can do the same thing for pasta and rice. I'm probly gonna buy eggs, too, so I can do scrambled eggs and omelettes for lunch and/or dinner. I don't have an oven, so if anyone (especially you, ma chere jumelle!!) has any tips or ideas, PLEASE let me know!! I actually found a stove-top chicken parm recipe, which is soooo exciting!! If you know me at all, you know how much I love my chicken parm lol.

So I've been talking about COOKING because yesterday Emily, Colleen, Robert (in a french accent, of course), and I went to the Odysseum, which is an outdoor mall. It's my little slice of America! I wasn't going to buy anything, but there was an adorable little blue and white striped dress for 19 E, so I bought that. I'm prob gonna wait to buy any other clothes til the weather changes, though. Might buy a pair of sandals, however, as I've been wearing my black flippies almost every day and I don't want to ruin them. So then we went to IKEA and I bought all this stuff for 32 E:
-a pack of 2 cutting boards
-a frying pan
-a sauce pan w/ lid
-a coffee mug (need my coffee maker still though!! AAHHH!!)
-a dish
-a bowl
-a package of silverware (I think there are four knives, spoons, forks, and soup spoons)
-a package of 4 good knives in a wooden holder (Mommy will love this!!)
-a pack that came with a spatula, large spoon, and large fork
-a pack of 3 tupperwares (that is clearly not grammatically correct, but I don't know how to say it....)
-a peeler (for potatoes or carrots or whatever)
-a can opener
-a dish towel
and my favorite:
-a wine opener!! It's practically the same thing as what we have at home, so now we'll have 3 when I get back!! We'll never need to buy another again!!

So I'd say it was a successful trip. And all that stuff will prob have to be shipped back home! Lucky me!

Hmm, what's next on the list? STRIKES! Yes, that's right, I will be having my first strike experience on Tuesday, September 7th. It's people who work for the government (fonctionnaires). So the tram probly won't be running, nor will any trains, so some of the girls here had to switch their train tickets. But I'm not planning on travelling during that week, so it won't effect me! A lot of people are going away for 4 or 5 days, but I'd rather have money when I get home. Plus, we've gone on excursions to Nimes and Avignon, and still have one more. That's plenty of travelling for now, and I wanna do a little when Carl comes! So I'll have to stay local on the 7th!

Next on the list: OLIVES!!
We went to an Oliveraie/Oliverie (I don't remember which one is correct, sorry) today. We got to walk in the olive orchard, and I took some pictures because we were in the countryside and right by the mountains! I think its the Cevennes! Yes, def is, but there's a name for that part of them that starts with an M and I know it's in my notes from civilization class, but I'm not about to look it up right now. So those pictures will be up probably next week with the St-Guilhem-Le-Desert pictures. It was so gorgeous, oh my gosh! And the oliverie was attached to an old house! I'd love to live around there, just for a vacation house (PLEASE BE RICH SOMEDAY!!). It was just perfect, with a wonderful breeze and pure, fresh air! I want to go back! They invited us back for their olive harvest at the end of December, but I won't be around. Oh well. Someday!

We got to taste 2 different olive oils, which was really weird, but cool. All the stuff there was organic, except that sometimes they have to spray pesticides around the area if there are bugs attacking. For instance, they had to spray a few areas surrounding the olive trees recently, because a certain type of fly has been biting the olives, which ruins them. We got to see a good one vs. one bitten by the fly. Dont eat olives off a tree if you don't know they've been bitten!! Ew!! Anyway, these olive oils were sooo strong, but probly mad good in food! They burned on the way down! And they had two very different flavors. I never realized olive oil could be so tasty!

We also tasted some tapenades (olive spreads) and I bought one of each (4 of them for 13 E). I'm gonna save them for when Carl comes. And if we don't finish them (which we probly wont - a little goes a long way), I'll see if I can seal them back up and ship them home for everyone to try!

Now I've been on the computer, putting off doing hw. But I have to do laundry!! But I don't remember how late the laverie is open until, so I think I'm just gonna wash my panties in the sink when I'm done writing this. I'm wearing my last clean pair and didn't realize it til today :O !! Then I'll concoct something for dinner, but I don't know if I'm gonna cook. Might just have a cheese/mustard sandwich and an apple and a PAIN AU CHOCOLAT (haha) for dessert. And some orange juice! And now that I have my wine opener I can open my bottle of wine!! 2E at Monoprix!!

I'll be writing soon, my loves. Take care and I love you all (especially Gramma and Mocha!!)!!

Luvvies,
Heather