homeostasis (or lack thereof) and culture shock

otherwise known as "a cold." I read online that culture shock can affect sleeping habits, but when I proposed this theory to Mom, she laughed at me and said I think you have a cold. Which actually does make sense... I have a runny nose and all that. But still, homeostasis and culture shock just sound cooler. Anyways, on to life:

For some reason I've been having the hardest time sleeping and last night (sunday night), whenever I woke up, all I could think of was "homeostasis" because each time I woke up I was either uncomfortably hot or cold. And i don't think the temperature in my room has changed at all. So maybe I had a minor fever? or something... but hopefully that's done now because waking up all night long is miserable and totally ruined all the ambitious plans I had for today (waking up early, swimming, going to mass, etc) sooo yeah, my sunday was basically shot, but I did start typing up my notes from class, and finished my presentation for Culture and Society so that's good. Oh and I did start watching a movie with Nicolas, its called the Ship that Rocked I think and its about Radio Rock on a boat in the middle of the ocean. It was really funny, but then I had to go over the presentation with Rebecca and Caitlin, so I didn't get to finish it. But I will soon I hope...

Monday I slept in as much as possible (still trying to get good sleep) and then had my Alsace history class. I really like that class - its a different way of looking at history (seeing how historical events affected wine. like wine quality and production are the most important aspects of history). Then I had Culture and Society, and Rebecca, Caitlin and I gave our presentation. I think our prof was impressed with our presentation too, because she seemed surprised we had a powerpoint and discussion questions planned (even though she told us we should) so that's really good, I think I'll get a good grade in that class. Then I went to the library and got a library card! I reserved a book so I can go back and pick it up tomorrow. Then I went home for a few min to drop off my things and then headed over to Rebecca and Caitlin's for a surprise birthday dinner for Rebecca. It was a Monday so we didn't go out (we all have class at 9 or 10 the next morning). All the IIEF girls were there and Luis (Aussie girl) and I and she was genuinely surprised - it was fun! Marie-Madeleine, the woman who runs the house they live in (its like a boarding house) made us all dinner : salad with raisins and clementines, vegetable lasagna and spice cake. It was all sooo good, especially the lasagna - we all went back for seconds. Then I went back home and crashed.

Tuesday: oh man what a day... woke up late, rolled out of bed and rode my bike so fast to class (got there in time, but I was sweating and a mess and that's just not what you do in France lol) Then tried to go to the bank, but obviously it closed 20 minutes before we got there and wasn't open for another hour. So, again, there goes my plans for swimming. I went home instead and showered and changed, then went back to the bank, and got my card (finally). Then I went to the library and picked up the book I reserved on Monday, the book chronicling the history of wine in Alsace (basically, I'm going to summarize this book for my 15 page paper). I explored the library a little bit and the upstairs is where the "reading rooms" are, and they're kind of like Bapst at BC. Sort of, at least: theres big wooden tables with chairs and it's completely silent. But its a good place to go and do work for class. Then I went to school to get my student card (finally). Then I went to Econ and my BC class. Econ was good, my prof talked a lot quicker and repeated himself less, but it was still ok. the BC class, though, was interminable! We talked about exposés, because we all need to do one, but it was like Presenting 101: Definition of a Presentation. She told us different categories (chronological, thematic, etc), described each category and told us how we should write our outlines. Then went through the do's and don't's of presenting: make eye contact, have a plan, don't read straight off your paper, etc. All the things we learned in 6th grade. The one thing I found interesting was the similarity of French exposés to 6th grade essays. Remember those 5 paragraph essays we had to write where in the introduction "you tell them what you're going to tell them," then in the body "you tell them," then in the conclusion, "you tell them what you just told them" ? Yeah, that's exactly the formula we use for our exposés. Literally, we're supposed to say (in our intro): "Hello, I'm going to talk about X Subject. First I will talk about the advantages, then I will talk about the disadvantages, then I will sum up with my thoughts and opinions on the issue." But oh well, at least its a straightforward way of presenting I guess. Then I went home and ate dinner. Then off to bed I think. Or maybe I skyped, I don't really remember lol :)

Wednesday... was yesterday... I woke up and was actually productive - it was awesome! I did laundry, then hung it up, then went to the pool. When I went to put on my cap, though, it ripped basically all the way, so I swam without a cap, and that's hard! It was more of a workout than I thought it would be! But at least I got a good workout! Then I went home, ate some leftovers and scurried to my BC class. This one was better, but it was still really boring because we kept listening to a radio broadcast over and over to answer questions about it. After that I went home and had a package waiting! Filled with goodies and Japanese foodstuffs from Grandma and Grandpa - that made my whole week! I couldn't help it, when I opened the box I dug into the Reese's... oh how I've missed peanut butter! Then I had dinner and it was good, but I didn't eat much (due to my late lunch and the Reese's) I showed Nicolas and Marie-Claude some of the things I got and they'd never seen it before, so I'm pretty sure I couldn't have found it here. I showed them peanut butter and Marie-Claude had seen it before, but Nicolas never had, and thought it was interesting. I also gave him Reese's to try because I have so many now :) and he'd never seen those either. I can't wait to make myself lunch of miso soup and rice... oh how I love and miss good Japanese food (I'm going to go out and hunt for stir fry ingredients sometime after break, I'd like to make the Bachtarzi's dinner sometime, but I'm not sure where to find Asian food... mostly ginger and oyster sauce, the other things I can find... I'll keep you posted on that front). And then after dinner, I had a good talk with Marie-Claude, mostly about the school systems in France and the US, that was nice, to just try to talk and I can tell I'm getting better.

This morning, Thursday, I meant to get up and go to the pool before class, but that didn't happen.. I have all day free tomorrow, though, so I'll go tomorrow and probably Saturday.

And with that, I'm caught up! hope you're all liking these long, random posts, because I think that's how its going to work, especially once I start traveling and I can't take my comp (that'll be weird, but I'll survive I guess). K well, better go get ready for class!

peace out!

some things never change...

1. making lists will always be an OCD tendency of mine (my walls are currently covered in lists for various things: flight prices, homework due dates, my ever-present "to-do" list, etc)

2. job hunting will always suck (have yet to find one - if anyone knows anyone who needs a nanny/secretary/intern in any field/intelligent rising college senior to work for them/trophy wife, let me know)

3. facebook will always be distracting (lol)

4. I will always love curling up with a cup of tea and good book :)

Which is probably what I'll be doing tonight. I was incredibly unmotivated today to do anything because I was really lethargic for some reason (I don't think I slept very well last night). And so I don't think I want to go out tonight, I had a great night both Thursday and Friday night and I'd like to wake up in the AM tomorrow lol

anyways, I should probably back up a few days since I've been slacking on my blogging lately...

sooo... I left off tuesday night.

Wednesday... what happened on Wednesday... Oh, right. I got up and went over to Caitlin and Rebecca's to work on our presentation and then I went to the pool (didn't feel as good today... oh well) then I went home, wasted time lol and then went to my BC class from 4-6. I like that teacher alot better, we read an article about renting bicycles (which I know all about haha) and listened to a song. Then I went home and had dinner... I don't remember what we had but I think it was pretty good.

Thursday I woke up and didn't have anything to do till 1, which is when I have my class on the War on Terror. So I got up, had breakfast, wasted more time and made myself lunch to take to class. That class is really interesting, we talked about the background of 9/11 and the immediate aftermath. Then we broke into groups and debated different questions. My group's question was what were the lessons learned and not learned from 9/11. And we had a good discussion because there were lots of different opinions (there was a STRONG Obama supporter, she was crazy, and the other Americans and I were pretty moderate and then the international students were pretty much really liberal). After that I went home and tried (and failed) to nap, had dinner with Nicolas and then Anna came over before we headed out to La Java. La Java is a club, mostly for students, and it was just a dance party in a basement. There wasn't a cover charge, which was awesome, and there weren't even mandatory drinks (like how some clubs don't have a cover but you have to buy 2 drinks, which usually comes out to like $10) There were some sketchy old men, but it seems like that's just everywhere and as long as you're smart and keep your wits, they're pretty harmless. Anyways, so Anna and I went out there and met up with the IIEF girls and we all danced for a few hours and it was really fun! They played alot of American dance music (including some Spice Girls and Michael Jackson and others like that) and they had a stage and bars that you could dance on, so we all got on the stage and danced together for a few songs :) We went home pretty early (by European standards anyways - around 2:30 ish)

Friday I woke up late and literally read all day, lounged in my sweats and pajamas and read Pillars of the Earth (I'm mildly obsessed right now) then I did my little pseudo workout since I didn't go to the pool (squats, lunges, abs, pushups, etc) and I'm not that sore today- yay! And then I went and met up with Anna and her program to go out to dinner. We went to a Brasserie where they served different varieties of tarte flambée. I got one with garlic and bacon on it (sounds weird, but it was really good!) and then Anna and I went and got hot chocolate before going back to her room and watching Narnia. I missed movie nights, it was fun to do that! Then home I went and off to bed :)

I didn't sleep that well, I think this week has been stressful for me in an almost subconscious way, I've just had a lot on my mind and its been a little overwhelming. At the same time, there's been so much that's happening, its hard to focus on organizing myself, so I get a little panicky sometimes at night I think (you know, right before you fall asleep when you think about what you have to do the next day, I've had a lot on my mind then, but not really during the day, so I think it messes with my sleep). Anyways, woke up late today, lounged again (but productively!) and finished my presentation and started typing my notes from classes - that's my task for tomorrow, to finish typing my notes. Today was good though, even though I was lethargic. Raphael, the Bachtarzi's daughter (in whose room I'm staying), came for lunch and Jean-Michel made sushi. It was sooo nice to have some Japanese food, since I'm used to having it like every other day. And it was really good! He made it all and it was impressive! We had sashimi with tuna, salmon and scallops and maki (rolls) with different combos of tuna, salmon, avocado and cucumber. Then when the sushi was done, we had bread and cheese (obvi haha), salad and clementines. Then we finished with tea and these little pieces of layered chocolate, caramel and graham cracker crust (I think those were the layers, either way, it was sweet and scrumptious lol). Then I spent the rest of the day not doing a lot.. typing notes, procrastinating, and figuring out which celebrity I look like. The result that Mom and I decided was Kristin Kreuk::

And now, I think I'm going to go snuggle up with some tea and the Pillars of the Earth... yes I'm a loser, but I know you all love me :) bisoux!

PS. I was kidding about the trophy wife, but serious about the other job positions

PPS. Yes, I am a nerd for doing that celebrity look-alike thing, but let me know what you think of it...

I'm a real person... what?

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've come to the realization that I'm not actually on a 5 month vacation here - I actually have to go to school and do homework. So, I have to be a real person. I mean, what?! haha but never fear, for I have returned! :)

K, so back a few days, on Monday I went for a swim again and it was better because there were less people and I felt pretty good, but I can tell I'm way out of shape (oops!). Then I came home, made myself lunch and went to class. Mondays I have regional history of Alsace (aka my wine class) and we found out that 1) Erasmus (=exchange) students don't have to do the oral presentation (yay!) 2) nor are they required to do the written final exam (yay!), 3) they are, however, expected to write a 15 page paper on the history of wine in the Alsace region in lieu of the oral and final (boo!). After that, I have Culture and Society in Europe since 1945 (aka C&S) and I signed up to do a presentation on Monday (2/1) to get it out the way (out requirements for that class are a group presentation, a 2 page response paper, class participation and a final oral exam). Then I came home, furiously looked up and decided on flights to spain (!) and had dinner with the family (good, not great: chicken cordon bleu from a box, pumpkin au gratin?, flan, bread and cheese) then looked up more stuff for traveling, and resigned myself to being broke upon return to the states lol

On Tuesday I got up, had breakfast, packed myself a million snacks (literally, I had a small grocery in my bag), and went to my literature class. It wasn't as bad as the first week - I zoned out less and understood more, but that class is still going to be a struggle for me. Then I went to the cafeteria and had a bunch of my snacks for lunch (I wasn't hungry enough for real food and didn't want to buy food). After that I went to Histoire des Relations Internationales for the first time (it was cancelled last week). I was thinking about taking that class and dropping Actualités Françaises, but I decided against it because the prof was going to have us write a 10 page paper instead of the final (but it would've been a hard 10 pages with research and sources, and all the stuff that I haven't done in years, oh yeah and in French).

After that class, Rebecca and I had a 2 hour break before our BC Course so we went to the cafeteria in IEP to chill for a bit. There, I ran into Anna, the girl from Princeton that I met in my Econ class, and we got to talking about February break and she might go with me to Spain! We were sitting there and then decided that we were hungry and wanted food before our 6-8pm BC Course. So, we all went together for dinner and got donor kabobs and fries (healthy I know - but so delicious! and I only had carrots and yogurt for lunch) then went to IIEF (where our BC class is, its the building for the intermediate french students). The 10 BC students in the IEP/UdS/EMS track (aka, the more advanced track, we're taking classes with french students as opposed to taking classes with students who's second language is French, its kind of hard to expain...) all have IIEF classes together, so we all went to this class and introduced ourselves to the prof, told her our goals for the semester, took a little written evaluation thingy and then left. The ride home was FRIGID - my hands were red and hurt so badly when I got home and I even had gloves on! Sooo... I'm not sure about my plan to swim in the morning... Anyways, I got home, and immediately made myself a cup of hot tea (mostly so I could hold the warm mug lol) and then got some apple crumble that I missed at dinner (which was amazing!)

okkkk well I know I'm still a day behind, but today wasn't all that special, so I'll wait till I have something exciting to write (slash when I have more energy lol all that being a real person thing is tiring!). Oh! I updated (finally) my photobucket album - the link is in the sidebar on the right of my blog. bisoux à tous!

weekend :)

Alright, now the actual weekend: Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday I woke up late again, had breakfast and then went to the farmer's market that's just around the corner from my house (Monday-Saturday there's a farmer's market in a square somewhere in Strasbourg and Sat its by my place). It was really little and closing up when I got there (around 1) so I didn't stay very long, but it was pretty cool, there were stalls for fruits, vegetables, meats, jams, breads and pastries and a random chinese lady selling egg rolls (lol). Anyways, so I walked from there to Place Kléber, picked up a few books for my classes and then went home again. Had lunch and then read and chilled for awhile. And by chill I mean I snacked all afternoon lol, not good since I was going out to dinner with 7 other girls (but our dinner reservations weren't till 8 so I did need to hold myself over till then... that's what I'm telling myself anyways). But then we all met up and went to dinner (Rebecca, Caitlin, Louise, the IIEF girls and I) to a restaurant right by the cathedral. It was wonderful. And a really fun experience! Because the atmosphere at French restaurants are so different than American restaurants. We were there for 3 hours and never felt rushed or like the restaurant needed us out to turn over the table. The waiter also left us alone a lot. So if we needed something, it was a little difficult to get his attention, but it was nice not being bothered all the time too. We all ordered from the Menu, which is like a deal type thing (I'm not sure how to describe it.. but it includes a salad or appetizer, entrée and a dessert, its sort of like the 2 for $20 deal at Applebee's, except that its only for one person and its a LOT better) anyways, sorry if that description didn't help. I got a salad, steak au poivre vert and tarte aux pommes. and it was all sooo good. The plates weren't very big but they were amazing and I actually liked not feeling stuffed to bursting at the end of the meal. We also got 2 bottles of wine for the table and it still only came out to 17euros each. Which, for a three course French meal and glass of wine, I think is a really good deal. Then we decided to just go home again, since it was already after 11 and we were tired.
So I got home and Nicolas had just gotten home also. I was freezing so I made myself a cup of tea and he made himself one also and then we started talking about music and we ended up talking about music, movies, comedians and random other things for almost 2 hours! I'm getting to really like talking to him, probably because he speaks in french and he's closer to my age than my "parents." Then I decided it was time for me to go to bed and that's when his parents walked in (around 1:30am)! They usually go out on Saturday nights and they stay out really late sometimes (I guess that's just how it is in France though, dinners take longer, bars and clubs are open later and it feels like everything is a little bit slower and later.) Anyways, then I went to bed and read more (obvi haha).

Then this morning, Sunday, I had the best intentions of biking to the pool to swim then going to mass at the Cathedral. Well... I didn't make it to the pool, but I did make it to mass. And it was awesome because it was in the Cathedral, but it was freezing!! I don't think there's heat in there (or if there is, it's gotta be hard to heat a building as massive and open as that). So we basically went to church in the same weather as outside. But oh well, I don't think I'll go back to the Cathedral until it warms up a bit, but I guess Kelly (one of the IIEF girls) found another neighborhood parish that has heat, so next week I'll try there. And then afterwards I decided since I didn't swim I'd bike to Germany, which is about 3.5 ish miles away (so not a far ride, but a nice short one), except then when I was going home from mass on my bike, I absolutely froze. It was soo cold. So now my new plan is to do lunges, squats etc again because I haven't been able to warm up all day and I'm not about to go out again in the frigid cold. I'll let you know if that actually happens since right now I'm just trying to keep warm (I'm not sure why I'm so cold today... everyone here is getting sick, so I hope I'm not getting anything...) oh well. Now I'm all caught up! yay! :) hope all is good with you- love you, miss you, talk to you later!

settling in to life here :)

So, last you heard, I was still rather shocked at how long it's been since I last rode a bike. Thus, for the rest of wednesday night I avoided my bike and just chilled at home :)

On Thursday, though, I figured I should ride my bike a little before I try to take it to school with me. So I rode it in the morning to the Council of Europe and back, and it wasn't bad- I only ran into one trashcan! lol and I took some more pics, those will be going up soon. I came home and showered, then decided that the bike ride felt good so I should do more physical activity. So, I did squats, lunges, sit ups, push ups and stretched. Yeah... that was the first time I've done any type to exercise while here... you can probably guess how I felt the next day haha.

Then I rode my bike to school and went to my class, War and Terror, which looks good (its mostly about the American War on Terror and its implications, roots, consequences, etc). I rode home, went to grocery store and got some lunch stuff, and ate said lunch stuff. Then had dinner with my family, it was delicious as usual: beef stew with carrots and salad and bread and cheese and oranges with sugar for dessert. Tonight I went out with caitlin and louise (a girl from australia in my history class) to Club Seven where we met up with IEP girls: Kelly, Christie, Erica and Lauren. It was an awesome club and was basically a dance party from 11-4am, but hot with sketchy old men who wear sweater vests. We avoided those men as best we could though (obviously.) and just had fun dancing together. They played mostly American music (Kesha, Lady Gaga, Kanye, etc) and some Euro house music so it was really fun to jump around and dance (although my legs were killing me from my random workout earlier). I ended up leaving fairly early, but I think it might take me another weekend to get used to going out like I used to (especially since last semester I barely went out due to the gross amount of work I had).

Alright... now its Sunday and I'm finishing this post... sorry for the delay lol

So on Friday, I woke up late, and had breakfast, and then rode my bike to the pool (without any incidents! even though it was a 3 mile ride both ways), and swam! Swimming was so nice again... it was kind of hard because I was swimming with a bunch of older men and kept running them over so I felt bad, but it was just so nice to get in and workout again! So I'm definitely going back soon. It was interesting too because (like everything here) it was really similar but there were little things that were different. The locker rooms, for instance: they have someone there who has hangers and will hang up your coat and check your bag for you (for free!) while you swim. And the locker rooms themselves aren't just big rooms with benches like most locker rooms; they have tons of little cubicle type things where you can change and each one has a bench and a mirror, its like a changing room in a mall. The pool itself was nice too (50m and pretty deep), ut was just difficult sharing lanes with lots of different abilities. Anyways, after I swam I rode home (and only got a little lost when I made a wrong turn!) had lunch then chilled and skyped with people :) I had dinner with the whole family tonight (Jean-Michel, my "dad" usually isn't home), and it was good, we had basically the same as yesterday but with quinoa or some kind of grain in addition and for dessert had mille feuilles (yummy!!). I was planning on going to an Italian party with Rebecca and some other girls, but we lost motivation around 930 and decided to just chill and have a night in. I read Pillars of the Earth (I'm getting really into it!) and went to bed early (sorry to disappoint everyone who thinks I should be discotheque-ing it up! but I promise to make up for it with my [hopefully] awesome travels!)

Well, I'll add saturday and sunday in a bit, sorry for taking awhile :)

bike riding is a lot harder than I remembered...

And bushes are good things to avoid, as are elderly couples, kids, lamp posts and brick buildings. Luckily I avoided all... except for the bush... Guess I'd better start over, well I should probably start from yesterday because I think that's where I left off.

Tuesday!
Today I had 3 classes planned: 10-12 literature francais (subsection about anthropology and ethnology), 2-4 Histoire des Relations Internationales, 4-6 Economie de la Transition. I woke up late (as usual) and ran out the door, late (as usual) but made it to the lit class early. That one is going to be difficult... the prof seems really nice, but its just going to be hard. 5 of the BC students are in that class, so we'll have eachothers' notes, but we need a french friend to survive - they write down EVERYTHING. in different colors, usually. So, we need to make friends lol. Then Caitlin, Rebecca and I got lunch in a Greek cafe place- I got a chicken sandwich and it was absolutely delicious! There's a lot of Greek and Indian places here (like our Mexican and Chinese I think) which, upon further reflection, actually does make sense since Greece is fairly close and India is closer to Europe than it is to the States. Anyways, lunch was good. Then Rebecca and I set off for International Relations. It turned out to be cancelled... so she went home and I chilled in the IEP cafeteria till my 4:00 class. Economie de la Transition is about, you guessed it, Transition Economics! haha, and the prof made a point about explaining how Transition Econ is different from Development Econ; the countries we're studying are already developed- most of them are part of the former USSR, so they were Communist. Others we'll look at were formerly Socialist (I think) and we're looking at how they transitioned from communism and socialism to capitalism or other political and economic systems. In short, it sounds awesome to me and I'm really excited! The nerd in me comes out lol, but the prof was really excited about it and made it really easy to follow (he spoke slowly and clearly and repeated himself a lot) and the material really interests me. We started by outlining communism and then we'll move on to what prompted the transition, the consequences, and modern economy.

Sooo I'm a dork and so psyched about my econ class! lol :) then I came home and had dinner with my family. We had salad (yay) and moussaka (not yay). And bread, cheese and mousse au chocolat. Then I skyped with Caitlin and Katie (yay). Then I went to bed.

Today, Wednesday was a pretty good day, but not as good as yesterday. I had another 10-12 class and that was it. My class was Actualités Francais, which is about French politics and current events. Which is pretty interesting but I didn't really like the first day, so I'm not sure I'm going to stay with it. It'll depend on my classes tomorrow probably. My prof is really cool, and teaches in a more American style (aka, homework and a midterm and final) but still pretty french (the homework is due in a month and is only a paragraph). But, we'll have tests on saturday... Ugh desicions desicions. I should probably stay in it and just take it pass/fail. But I'm really not sure, and I don't have to decide until next week so that's good.

Then after my class I went to go check on my student ID card (not ready yet ugh) and then went on an adventure to rent a bike. Succeeded in renting the bike, but riding it is a whole different story... I almost ran people over and then ran into a bush trying to avoid running over an old lady (I figure I probably made the right choice about that, but it was humiliating and kind of hurt.) Then again, I was an idiot and decided to ride home through the busiest part of town where there are only sidewalks (no roads or bike paths). So, maybe I deserved it a little. Feeling so off-kilter on a bike though did make me rethink my plans to immediately jet off for the pool (I think I'll save that for tomorrow or friday, even though I CANNOT wait to swim, I don't want to die just yet- I need some practice on my bike). Tomorrow morning I'm going to ride it around near my house I think before heading to class (class at 1 and 4 tomorrow). And then, hopefully, hopefully I'll be comfortable enough on the bike to try the 4.5 km ride to the pool (I know 4.5 km isn't that long, but its about 4.5 km's farther than I've ridden in like 5 years, so I'm easing into it lol) And that brings us up to now: I'm blogging and avoiding my bike for the rest of today haha.

Goals for tomorrow: get lunch stuff from the grocery store, ride my bike around and not crash into/run over/injure anything or anyone (including myself), get my student card and get to class on time! make if i'm especially motivated i'll go to Monoprix and get some paper and the bookstore for a english-french pocket dictionary... but that may be too ambitious ;)

so, till later, tu me manques et je t'aime!

Defying gravity and taking chances.

2 things about the title for today: 1. if you haven't seen the show Glee, that is a travesty and needs to be remedied ASAP. 2. I've been listening to the music basically non stop for a few days and I feel like these songs are so inspiring for me right now! I was also listening to them before I left to try and get excited about studying abroad and not be as worried about being on my own in a foreign country. Now I've been listening to them because I'm loving it here and the message is so great for me right now - I need to just go and do the things that I want to and make sure I don't let anything get in the way. Really, I should do that with life in general, but I'm trying really hard to make sure I do what I want to while I'm here and not let others dictate what I do. I still have trouble coming out of my shell with strangers (aka people in my classes who are french that intimidate me lol) but my goal for this week is to be better about talking to them at least a little bit.

With that big blurb out of the way... lol I don't even remember when I left off...

Ok, so Saturday night I was lame lol and just read my book, which is actually pretty good! Went to bed relatively early (~1ish) and woke up relatively late (~11ish) ate breakfast and then got ready to meet up with the BC group at the movies (a BC sponsered trip, so we paid for... nothing - I even made 3 euros off the trip lol) We went and saw Le Siffleur, which was kind of a french version of Oceans 11. We think. It was pretty funny, but I really only followed some of it and at points I had no idea what was going on or who was on which side or who betrayed whom lol but it was fun nonetheless. Then after that, we all met up at a cafe for pastries and coffee. I got a chocolate mousse type thing and a cappaucino. The chocolate mousse was ridiculous. I don't even know how to describe it lol, it was like a ball of chocolate covered mousse, but the mousse was firmer and richer than mousse... like a truffle kind of (not the fluffy kind of truffle tho, like the ones that you eat one and have to lick the roof of your mouth afterwards... does that make any sense at all?) and the chocolate on the outside was dark, really really rich chocolate. Oh and it was almost the size of my fist. I barely finished it, but it was so good I couldn't stop. (Although I probably should've since I later had a chocolate overdose induced headache and stomachache lol). BC paid for that too :)

After that, I didn't eat again till like 8:20, because dinner was kind of here's food, eat whenever you want kind of deal and I was absolutely stuffed from that gigantic ball of richness. Thennnn I don't remember what I did... probably nothing haha maybe watched some Glee (I downloaded it and have been watching it all the time since then) then picked up my new book - Pillars of the Earth (because Mom told me to read it since I'm going to be visiting cathedrals and stuff all over the place.) Oh, now I remember! I did laundry last night! which was good because I was running out of underwear and socks... TMI sorry :) but yeah, yay clean clothes! And they have a washer but no dryer, so all my clothes had to hang dry, so its a good thing I did it yesterday and not tomorrow haha so I did my laundry, waited till it came out and then hung it up and then went to bed.

So then this morning, I woke up, had bfast, checked my laundry, put away the dry clothes and then got dressed and ready for my first day of school! I had 2 classes today: Regional History of Alsace: Wines, Vines and Vineworkers (rough translation lol) from 1:30-4 and Culture and Society in Europe after 1945 from 4-6. I had to meet with Susan (our program coordinator) before 12, though, so Caitlin and I left around 11:20 this morning. And it was a BEAUTIFUL day, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was [relatively] warm! It was glorious! (Pics coming soon).

So we met with Susan, turned in some paperwork and then set out to find out where our classes are- they don't post that stuff online (that would be too simple, obviously). It took a bit of navigating and asking questions and locating hidden stairwells, but we figured it out eventually :) Then she and I went to our first class, we're taking Regional History together and it went really well! The professor was really nice, one of the first questions he asked was "Who are Erasmus students?" (Erasmus=exchange) and my hand shot up. He then went on to say that we wouldn't have to do the oral presentation that the rest of the class has to do (phew! I was freaking out when he was talking about that). And then the class went through introductions and then we started talking about the basics of a vineyard! About how grapes grow and what makes good or bad harvests, grapes and wine, etc. It was difficult to follow, but really interesting and I really liked it!

After that, we had to book it to our next class that's about a 7 min jog away but we ended up making it before the professor walked in. Culture and Society is taught in English, so it'll be my safety class in a way - it has more homework than most classes I think, but its all in English, so I and other native English speakers have a distinct advantage. It sounds interesting too, we'll study how people's identities and cultures have changed post WWII- topics will include the Cold War, immigration, decolonization, globalization, americanization, all those "zation" words. But the focus is on the people and culture, not politics or governments, which I think will make it really cool. So all in all, a good first day of school :)

Then, Rebecca, Caitlin and I walked home (Rebecca, Caitlin, Cammie, Kelsey and I are all taking C&S together) and I scarfed down some random food (yogurt, nutella sandwich, carrot, more nutella) before heading off to a surprise bday party for a BC girl (that I actually didn't know, but she's really nice!) where I ended up gorging myself on absolutely delicious pastries and cake- I feel like a million pounds at the moment lol. I can't wait to rent my bike and ride it to the pool and swim and feel like a real person again (this not working out thing is absolutely driving me INSANE! because I eat so much good, but rich, food and don't work it off so I've been feeling really heavy and gross lately).

But, that brings me to now- just sitting at my comp, typing this and thinking about my feb break (tentative plans to go to Spain with Sonia, one of my suitemates from last year). And listening to Glee, obviously ;)

Wow, that was a long post! Props if you actually read it all the way through! lol next time I'll try to break it up more.

I'll stop here :) love you all! bisoux à tous!

PS. I'm so glad people actually read these posts- I actually never felt like people would read these, but I'm glad they [as in, you] do! It makes me feel a little less silly to be documenting my life in such detail to know that someone appreciates it! Let me know what you think and maybe I'll bring you back a present! ;) Or, at least let me know your address and I'll work on sending postcards! Ok, now I'm really stopping haha - bon soir!