recap encore!

So. Let's see... I left off at day 2 when I passed out...

Day 3: January 8

I woke up and went to Place Kléber and met some of the other BC students and we all got cell phones (very necessary - communication completely via facebook wasn't working out.) then we got lunch and then I went to be advised by Susan at the IEP. It actually didn't help that much, but its just going to be annoying to pick classes. Oh well.

Then I went home and had dinner with my family again. We had some kind of meat loaf thing with plums. Be proud of me, Mom, I ate the meatloaf. I even had mushroom soup! lol and then we had chocolate mousse, so it was worth it. Too much cream, though, I think, for my stomach right now. But its ok.

Then I went over to Caitlin and Rebecca's apartment and we had some wine and then we went over to Kelsey and Chelsea's apartment on the other side of town and had more wine and champagne. Their apartment is really nice - its a couples future retirement home, so its like a home, not a boarding room or a dorm. Then we went to this club type place but they were having Salsa night (we thought it was going to be like hip-hop night or something) but it was fun, I bought my first rum and coke from the bar and it was strong! then some French students came to hit on us lol and we all started speaking in franglais- it was so fun! They were freshmen studying geography in the university and wanted to know about American college parties - if they were like the ones in American Pie lol and I wanted to know if French buy boxed wine and 30 racks of beer like college students do in the US (they do, I was surprised). We also ended up going with them to another bar somewhere close by and it played all American 90s rock music - Guns n' Roses, Aerosmith, Creed, etc. and that was fun too. Apparently bars in Europe don't close until 4 or 6 am because I looked at my phone at one point and it was 3 am already! We decided to leave then, but we were definitely some of the first people going home, whereas in the US, that would be really late for a party. We got home around 4 and I was exhausted! I have no idea how people stay up that late then function the next day.

Day 4: January 9

Slept till 1 and had trouble getting up even then... not hungover or anything, but I think being out that late when I'm still kind of jet lagged was probably not the best idea. Had "breakfast" (I'm not sure if it qualifies as bfast at 1 pm, but it included coffee and yogurt so I'm counting it) then created my blog (lol) and then decided I should go outside finally and meet up with Rebecca, Caitlin and Doug (Caitlin's friend from BC who's studying in Paris). We met up in Place Kléber again and wandered, picked up some random essentials (tote bag, stapler, notebook, masking tape, you know, the usual lol). It was sooo hard to resist the sales though! It's like national sales month - EVERYTHING is on sale! and it's a problem because now is when I have money to spend... but I shouldn't because I want to save it for travelling. Oh dilemma... if only AJ (TJ) were here to help me shop for things haha.

So after that, we went home and M. and Mme Bachtarzi were going out to dinner, so Marie-Claude (my host mother) made Nicolas (my host brother) and I leftovers from last night. I ended up skyping with Mom, Dad and Rob so I ate after it was finished, but Nicolas waited for me to eat, which was really nice of him. We ended up talking, a lot about random differences between France and the US (everyone here is obsessed with Guinness and Heinekin and thinks that Americans have huge house parties all the time) but it was fun talking to him, we had a glass of wine together then he took off to hang out with his friends and Caitlin and Doug came over here before we took off to look for a bar. Finding a place for us to go on the weekends could take a few tries, I think, but it's been fun so far just because I don't go to the bars in the US so it's just a different experience. Nicolas told me a few places to go that I'm sure we'll try out sometime and each place we've been is so different I hope we find one that's fun and not creepy where we could go often.

Caitlin, Doug and I tried to go to Rue des Juifs, where apparently there's a bunch of clubs and bars that people our age frequent, but we ended up getting a little lost and just went to the first not completely sketchy bar we found because it was snowing and freezing (typical- it would be the coldest winter in Europe the winter we come, specifically the week we come lol). Kelsey, Chelsea and Sarah met up with us at the bar there and we just chatted for awhile then headed home at around 1:30.

I got home around 2ish and the Bachtarzis were just getting home also because they went to dinner in the country somewhere and apparently the roads were really bad because the snow is so slushy. I keep getting the impression Strasbourg doesn't get a ton of snow and usually isn't this cold, so I just keep hoping that a) maybe it won't rain too much and b) once this cold snap is over, maybe the worst of the weather is over. Those may be just wishful thinking, but hey until I'm proven wrong, I'm going with it lol

and I think that means I'm officially all caught up. I'll probably drop the "day #" part just because at this point, I don't know if it makes much difference (at least until I get closer to when I go home)

Well, I hope everyone who reads this is warmer than I am and has a wonderful day! :)