March 16, 2010

The internet at home stopped working Sunday. It works for the family but it doesn't work for either of my computers or Courtney's. Thankfully there is now internet connection in the institute. it's being really slow right now, though. I decided to just work on an update! I hope the internet at home starts working, though. I need the internet most at night when more people are online so I can chat. Well. We'll see how it goes. :S


On Saturday, I went to the Catacombs with Todd, Miro, Ariel, and two guys in the BYU group, Dan and Bart. It was fun heading down there. Seeing a ton of bones doesn't freak me out at all. In fact, I touched one of the skulls. I got in trouble... but I touched a human skull. I'm pretty proud of myself. I was good and refrained for the rest of the trip down there. Holy cow, so many people were put down there, it's crazy.


Being with all those dead people really inspired us to having religious debates for some reason. Todd was talking about how humans have already been on earth for 6000 years and I was a tad flabbergasted because I thought no one believed that anymore. There's pretty clear proof that Egyptians have been around for a lot longer, and there's even more ancient people than them. Todd suggested that maybe extra terrestrial peoples made the pyramids and stuff. It was really amusing because he actually believed it. He was quite shocked when he found out I believe in evolution and the big bang theory. When I was explaining that all the matter that has ever been was once in a single point. When I explained that a point is smaller than a period on the end of a sentence, he giggled all childishly and was like “naaaw, I don't believe that.” His ignorance towards science was actually kind of endearing. Not in an attractive way, but in a way like a child who just doesn't understand. At least we're all allowed to have our own opinions, I suppose. I don't really think any less of him. He does Economics which is hard core and I don't understand it at all.


Speaking of science, I was just thinking about how much science really amazes me and how interesting it is. I don't know why I chose my worst subject, French, to study. Oh man, I'll just stick with European Studies, though, because I'm lazy and just want to get school over with. Actually, European politics, as much as it ticks me off, really does make me feel passionate about something. I guess that's a good thing. As long as I'm interested. And I love knowing more about the world. Ok, I'm chill with my major again. I guess I just had to talk that one through. And speaking of education... I wonder if I should stick with a Scandinavian Studies minor.. two minors is a little ridiculous and a tad useless... I better decide before class registration... which is like now . ACK! Ok, I really hope my internet works at home so I can figure out my schedule. I guess i'll try to get this institute net working better so I can check what classes I need from here. Being in France is kind of complicating a lot of things. At least I have housing now! I think...


Anyhow, after the catacombs, we went up to look for food. I was starving. I hadn't really eaten anything and it was like 4 by that time. As we were walking around we came across a movie theater and decided that we all wanted to watch a movie. Basically the choices were Avatar, Shutter Island, or the Ghost Writer. Ariel didn't want to see Shutter Island cause it is rated R and I didn't want to see Avatar again so we went to Ghost Writer... which is apparently rated R as well. The only thing that made it R was all the swearing, so if they had left all that out it would have easily been pg-13. Oh well Basically what I got from the movie was that the USA is evil because we want tighter control on security in airports and are trying to fight terror. Also, apparently when other countries make bad decisions it's because the US is secretly controlling them in impossible ways. Oh well, it's Roman Polanski's last movie, hopefully, since he finally got caught for rape. What a creep. I also can't believe people say he shouldn't be punished because he is such a great artist. Seriously? So because he makes somewhat ok movies, he should be able to get away with rape? Ok, sorry... random soap box moment.


Before we all went to the movies, though, we ate at McDonalds because it was close and we didn't have much time until the film started. McDs here are crazy because the insides of them look all chic and odd. They also have really nasty sauces in their burgers. It's really interesting


Ok, I just checked out my classes. Basically, my choices are D&C, History about the European reformation and another about the Italian Renaissance, intro to international business, European Geography, society in Europe, French advanced grammar, advanced comp, lit analysis, world civ 2, Danish 101. I wanted to take Western European political science, but I had to have two prerequisite polysci classes. I could do that if I just don't minor in stuff. I was looking through it and both minors I was thinking of are actually a ton of work and minors are kind of useless anyways. Maybe I could just major in European studies and focus more on politics. Cause otherwise I'm taking a huge mash up of classes and end up with a really random education. Any thoughts? What classes should I take? They were all about 3 credits I think. Sept D&C, that was 2. Oh, I also just realized that the French major is only a few more credit hours than the french minor so I could easily get a major instead. Again... am I up for that much work? If I stick with the one major than I could be out of here a lot sooner. That would be awesome. I also have to do another English class. I may just do that during a spring or summer term. I can put that off :) wow, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

Well, after the movie, Courtney and I met up with Haley and Emily to eat dinner with their French host mom. It was really fun to hang out with those two. I think I've been too harsh on Emily. She's actually a nice and funny girl. She just gets annoying when she has a large audience. I'll try to be more patient with everyone here. I'm a little more irritable since being in France. I'll work on it. Anyhow, we had dinner and their host mom is an awful cook. I liked eating with them cause their host mom is a lot more chatty and friendly and less awkward and tense than our family can be. It was really fun.


Sunday, I was going to cut a few of the boy's hairs after church and Todd bought a ton of food to feed me with BUT I had dinner with the Ricks right after church so I ditched them. Maybe i'll do it next week. Dinner with the Ricks was fun. Courtney went off to chat with her family on their phone so I got to chat with the ricks the whole time. Laura's sister was there. It was just nice and relaxing. I had a lot of fun with them. We talked about dating, all my letters, where i'm from, etc. Laura was interested that i'm from such a small place and wondered what I liked about it. Cody never seems that small to me just cause we always make a point of leaving every once and a while. Then we can get our “culture.” I think culture just means shopping. I feel a little claustrophobic here in paris. I miss the big open sky and wilderness. It's ok, though. I only have a little more to go. I also played with the Ricks kids. I always manage to rile them up so much. I feel bad. I taught them the tripping game. You're welcome, Sister Ricks. :S by that I mean i'm sorry.


I went home and jut died on my bed. The internet wasn't working and I needed sleep anyways. It was one of those coma naps. I slept for hours but it wasn't really restful but I couldn't get myself to wake up for the life of me. It was awful. Also, even though Courtney and I told the mom that we weren't going to eat dinner with them, somehow the message didn't get across and they made us food and they had guests over. I would have gone if I wasn't in that dumb coma nap. Courtney was already in her Pjs, too. I felt pretty bad about that.


Yesterday was good. Mondays are always my longest days. I have class at 9:30 and then the singles FHE doesn't end until about 10:30 at night. I gave my religion presentation in class, today. It went well. The article I had to read for it was “the trial of the french mission” by Kahlile Mehr. You should look it up. It's WILD. I think it went ok. I'm not super good at public speeches but that's cause i'm really unorganized. That tends to be my problem with most things. My room and my brain work much the same way. No wonder I am so bad at school.


After class, Rosalie, Shaina, Chelsea and I went shopping to kill some time. I really liked all the cloths at Zahora but it was just a bit too much and although the cloths at H&M weren't so expensive, I didn't really like any of them so I was good and didn't buy anything.


FHE with the Ricks was fine. Nothing terribly interesting happened, there. We just had amazing brownies. It's nice to hang out with an american family, though. After that, Ariel and I headed over to the singles FHE. That was pretty fun. I understood only parts of the lesson. It was about friendship. It's so hard to pay attention when you have to focus so hard to get anything from the lesson. After, we all hung out and spoke. I talked to a new guy named Lehi. He's from southern France and going to a university in paris, trying to figure out life. He served his mission in Logan UT which apparently includes Star Valley WY. His mom is Arabic and his dad is German so he's not really French, either. He has some of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen btw. Just saying...


The guy who's apartment we have FHE at served his mission in the Denver North mission so he was in WY for a bit, too. I know Cody had a French missionary a few years back, too. What's with all these French guys getting sent to WY?


I wore my “shut up and spoon me” shirt there. I wore layers over it so you couldn't see what it said but it was so hot in Ed's apartment that I had to take them off. I got a lot of teasing for that. One american boy, Carter, was asking us girls out and we all had to tell him that we couldn't and all the boys were arguing that that was a silly rule. They also talked about the art of French kissing. It was just over all an interesting night. We ended up staying there really late.


I keep having to wait for the family to go to bed before I put my laundry in the wash because they always leave loads in the washer and dryer and I have to take them out and set them aside. Usually I will put a load in the dryer and go to bed and hurry up and swap the cloths back before the family wakes up. It didn't work, this time. I got to the laundry room (which is right by my bedroom) and they had beat me there. I feel a little bad.


Well, nothing else new happened today. Garret was a jerk about our morning quiz today. We arrived a few min late but he only have us ten seconds to do the quiz for it and I only got one out of five. I was pretty mad because he's late all the time. Maybe I should insist that for every time he is late we get one extra point on our quizzes.


In french, we are down to the nitty gritty, too. We're covering articles, relative pronouns, the pronouns y and en, etc. those are all simple little things, but it's really hard because it is SO little and precise. I think if some of those were broken down in English, I would have problems. I still have issues with who and whom, for example. It's all really silly and i'll be kind of mad if I do bad on it, but because it is so silly I have a bad feeling that I may not do as well on it as I would like. Idk if that makes any sense at all.


Well that's all I can think of for now. I really hope my internet starts working again. I really need to update my blog. It's getting pretty pathetic. I also need to upload my pictures. I may go on a walk with Ariel after she gets out of class, too. That'll be fun. I'll talk to you ll soon! I miss and love you guys.

March 12, 2010

I just got home from Normandy! it was really fun. except i kept calling mnt st michel mnt snt michelle.

Ok, were to begin. we started off at an insanely early time of day to get together at Ricks' place to hot on a buss to head over. i was pretty out of it, honestly. i got to nap though. So buss drivers in france have to stop for 45 min like every two hours they drive so that is super annoying. they also have to stop their buses before 8. talk about ridic.

First off, we stopped at the Omaha beach and saw the grave yard and everything there. on the buss drive on the way there, we watched the longest day on the little tv screen and i was remembering when we watched Jurassic park 3 on my high school trip on those same types of buses. anyhow, the movie really got me thinking at how young these boys were and how scary the whole experience had to have been. it kind of set the mood. basically the whole time there i was trying not to cry. just thinking about these young guys who risked their lives for complete strangers was pretty hard and def made me wonder if i would be able to do the same thing.It really made me love america, too. the whole time here everyone on the trip have acted all embarrassed to be americans and we're often treated kind of poorly cause we are americans, but seeing what we did for france back in the day really made me put all that silliness aside and take pride in my country. some of the old french people say that they will never forget what we've done for them, and i hope that is the case.

While wondering around, i decided i really wanted to go touch the ocean. i wandered down to the beach by myself. i was a little worried cause i didn't have the time and we had to meet up by a certain time. thankfully, at the bottom of the hill, i ran into Rosalie and Emily. they were pretty nice about letting my tag along. we came across this long creek type thingy in front of the actual ocean and i was the only one brave enough to forge across it to get to the ocean. they took lots of pictures for me. it was fun, and it helped me feel a little less depressed.

After that, we headed the another Dday site but i totally forgot what it was called (pont hoc). it's the one that has all the german bunkers and creators. I think i remember going there when i was super little. it was one of the few trips where we brought our video camera with us and i remember playing like a lion in the creators. I had fun there. Mike called it a german playground and i think he is quite right about that. there was just a lot to see there. I was pretty goofy by that time. the seriousness of the whole experience wore off on me and i was just ready to have some fun.

We then went to the Bayeux tapestry. we had audio guides that told us what each scenes were depicting which was useful. the only issue was it went through it all really quickly. i wanted to go back and look at everything a little more close but everyone else was basically done by then. I didn't realize that Edward named William as heir, and that harold just had himself crowned. I need to catch up on my English History. Then we had a little video to watch about the tapestry. they had funny reenactments of the battles and they were so unrealistic that i laughed a little.

After that, we just kind of wondered the town and Ariel, Mike, Garret and i got a deal on pizza so that was our dinner. Like i said, the bus driver had to basically check in by 8 so we headed out to our hotel super early. I roomed with Ariel and courtney. Courtney went off to have dinner at the nearby buffalo grill for about three hours so ariel and i watched a french crime show on tv and seriously goofed off. we just shared secrets and talked about really random stuff. it was really fun. When courtney came back, i took a shower in the little shower room where there wasn't even room for my cloths. it had a little peep hole so i could look out and see them wandering around the room. it was really funny and totally random. i could shower but still watch tv and be a part of the rooms activities. i was laughing during the whole shower. Also, i haven't shaved since i got here, so i decided to take advantage of the hotel shower. Ariel and i decided it would be funny for me to shave stripes in my leg so i did. it's pretty gross and pretty funny. After that, we all rawled in bed. Ariel and i shared the double and courtney got the bunk. even after we turned out the lights, ariel and i stayed up a lot longer just giggling and being silly.

Today, we went to Mnt. St. Michel. i was asleep the whole way there and Ariel said that she tried for like 5 min to get me awake. i don't really remember. when i finally popped up i was all frumpled. Mnt. St. Michel is pretty breath taking. it's so beautiful. It's really too bad it's so crowded during summer and isn't really a town anymore. it was just perfectly cute and romantic. of course it is also pretty touristy but you can avoid that pretty easily. the old monastery is pretty amazing, too. it's interesting to get a closer look at the way they lived. it's pretty hard core. there's really not a lot i can say about it, for some reason. nothing incredibly fun happened there. it was just all really beautiful to look at. it actually reminded me a bit of Chefchaouen in the way it was all crowded together and built on an incline like that.

i was a tad socially awkward on this trip. i wasn't doing anything, really, but i was a little irritable, and some other girls were too. it's ok, though, cause i just brought my ipod so on the bus i could just listen to that and sleep so it wasn't a big deal. i had a ton of fun as it was anyways. I laughed a lot, too. I got some really silly pictures. and, of course seeing the Ocean is always a huge pick-me-up.

again, on the ride home, nothing incredibly to report on. i didn't wear mascara at all today. it was kind of an accident. i didn't wear any to breakfast to scare shaina with my lack of dark eyelashes, and i was going to put some on on the buss but i ended up sleeping really soundly on the way to mnt st michel. The guys were kind of funny about it. they said they knew i look different but they couldn't say how and that i'm one of those people that looks really different without makeup. it's true. going from having defined eyes to having little black dots is quite a difference. they also said they didn't really realize i wore makeup until they saw me without it, so i guess that's a good sign. actually, going makeupless was kind of nice and refreshing. when i got home, though, my host mom asked me if i was tired and motioned to her eyes. haha. oh well, it was still nice.

I just shaved and it was almost sad... but i figured it's time to let go. haha.

March 10, 2010

The family came home yesterday. Mr. Julienne came in to put their new wine in the cellar and he was just being cute and bubbly and seemed genuinely happy to see courtney and me. I saw a band-aid on his finger and commented that he had a wound and he was all "oh non, non. une petite booboo" and it was just so funny. I really like him. He's pretty silly.

Church was ok, today. i was really tired and i have no idea why because i didn't stay up that late. after church i was talking to Todd, another american named Carter and my sunday school teacher. it turns out they all needed hair cuts but they hate getting cuts here because they don't know how to ask for them they asked if any of us cut hair and i told them that i've cut guys hair before but with scissors. they decided that we were going to have a hair-cutting party and they would pay me with food. sounds game to me! i hope i don't mess up... haha. it'll be fun. i'm looking forward to it.

Last night, it was totally scared because i was up after everyone else had gone to bed. when i went to the bathroom i turned on the living room light so i could find my way to courtney's room ok and while i was on the pot (heh) i heard someone moving around in there so i kind of figured i woke someone up or something. i felt weird so i didn't come out for a couple min. when i did, there was a really cold breeze like a window was open, then i heard a door slam shut. I looked up at the little door to outside by the stairs and a figure ran past it. i was kind of freaked out and went to wash my hands in the bathroom in courtney's room. i stayed in there for a bit too. when i sneaked into my room i felt like everything was ok, but then i heard more shuffling around in the basement. it was prob just one of the family members, like Tristan sneaking out or something. it was just freaky. I'm glad everything is safe.

After church today, Ariel, Sheina and i went first to Sheina's house to get her computer, than to mine so we could all do homework together. it was really fun to just hang out with some girls while doing homework and goofing off. It's a bit of college life i feel like i'm missing out on right now. It was nice to just hang out and not worry about doing the walks or food or anything like that. we were also able to talk about boy deprivation, bodily functions, etc. it was nice to just laugh and talk about totally dumb things. good times.

we needed to grab sheina's computer because Ariel and i needed power point and Ariel's roommate and mine were being major brats about letting us borrow theirs. Ariel especially needed to borrow someone's and kept talking about it. at first sheina wouldn't be able to let her borrow hers because she was going for a walk, and i was just really annoyed that Courtney wouldn't offer to let ariel use hers. it was just stupid. Sheina ended up not doing the walk so Ariel was able to use hers at my place. Sheina lives in Vesinet, which is a town just past Croissy. it's super cute and really spread out. i was trying to not be jealous of her town. the house i live in is still the best, though.

Dinner with the family was ok. i walked in a bit late because i had walked ariel to the RER station. it was a little awkward and i didn't really understand anything they were saying tonight. they didn't even really talk to me either. the food was ok, though. we had pizza which i had been craving for forever. the dad made sure to set a piece aside so i could have seconds. they know me too well. i ate really fast, too, cause i always feel like they are waiting for me and it's awkward. Nothing too fun to report there. I guess i found it interesting that Lorene was drinking wine at dinner.

Now it's wednesday. Let's see... what happened on Monday... I just went to class, and the big project i had to present on was put off a week. it just kind of stunk because i was busy doing that instead of working as hard as i should on my French homework. After class, i was going to do my homework until FHE but a whole group of us minus a few of my least favorite people stuck around at the institute and spoke about death and what we want done to our bodies after we die. Bart got really into it. He came up with some good ideas. One of his best has to be putting your ashes in concrete to make a statue of yourself with. No one understood why i wanted to be put in a wooden coffin. I guess they just don't understand why i care about the circle of life type of thing but i want to be part of the earth when i die, not all creepy and mumified in a steal casket. It was really amusing, though, and I like that Bart has his morbid side. I'm not the only one.

FHE with the family was ok. i pretty much just dinked around on my computer with ariel and we ate chocolate tarts together, it was really nice and relaxing. even though i felt like i had so much to do, i really wanted to socialize, so Ariel and i headed out to the young single adults FHE. When we first got t here, it was a little awkward cause both of us felt a little awkward about using our french. The lesson was given by Miro on "la foi." I had no idea what la foi was so i was really confused for a bit, but when i got the whole seed and tree thing i got it. It was really interesting hearing the faith is like a little seed stuff from a convert. I suppose i never thought of it from a convert's view point. i'm sure it's scary for them to make the decision to be baptized when they don't know everything, but just hearing that you don't need to know everything has got to be pretty important for them. Ariel said that she didn't understand any of it but still felt the spirit. It was just really different than FHE with the BYU kids because these kids were all really into the lesson.

Rewind a tad... before FHE happened with the single adults, Ed, the guy who's house this is all at, was stuck in traffic, so we were all hanging out in his hall waiting for him. I was talking to one kid who's swiss. I told him that i've been to bern and that i have family there. he asked why they were there and was surprised to find out they were swiss. He asked why my family left and when i told him my ancestor didn't get the house, he immigrated to the states. he seemed really perplexed.

After the lesson, i spoke with Todd and Miro. both boys are really easy to talk to and Ariel and i like them better than any of the other guys in our BYU group. I also spoke to one French guy who asked me what i was planning on doing after school and he was really perplexed when i told him that i had no idea. i guess things are a little different in France on that regard. Miro went to spain for this birthday and was telling us how he was having family drama and it all sounded so familiar. family drama is the same around the world. At one point i looked over at him and who he was talking to and he was dancing sexy and lifting up his shirt, than he basically gave a lap dance on the couch. i did my best to act shocked but he said he was telling a story about someone else. it was pretty funny. Landon, my sunday school teacher, found me to remind me that i'm cutting his hair. I like talking to todd cause ariel and i are pretty honest about how we feel about the other kids in our group. he's fairly amused by it.

After FHE, Ariel and i decided that we are horribly boy deprived here. my boy standers have gone down a lot too, being that there are no good looking guys here. anyone remotely not ugly i'll drool after. haha. Ariel has also decided that she wants to NCMO a lot because she's just betting more and more guy crazy the more we are deprived. It'll be even worse for her because she's going on an all girls art history tour during spring term, so when she gets back to provo, she'll prob go nuts. what a fox. We talked in sighn language across the metro station. maybe i should do sign language, i'm remembering all of that pretty well.

here's a random story. One time i got off the RER at croissy. I was just walking home when i realized that NOTHING looked familiar. i knew i got off the right train station and i knew i was going home the right way but it was just really eery (i cannot figure out how to spell that so... sorry) to me that everything looked different. I really felt like i was in a dream state or in an alternate reality. it was very creepy.

I also had to buy mascara the other day cause i was running out. here, mascara costs 15 euros!!!!!!!!!!!!! 15!!!!!!!! what the heck??? i swear. If i had normal eyelashes i wouldn't even bother. Shaina (i just figured out that i had been spelling that wrong) told me that she's scared of Tilda Swinton (the witch from The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe) because she doesn't have eyelashes... aka they are blond. I guess it's ok that i bought mascara, then. I don't want to scare off shaina with my eyelashesness.

We had our french test after class and it wasn't so bad. i just suck at vocabulary which is stupid cause that's supposed to be the easiest part. i guess i'm just not good at memorization. i was also able to make up the listening comp test after that and chilled with garret and ariel for a bit.

Before the test, i had a little meeting with Ricks about my french 362 project ideas. I am either thinking something to do wtih Dali or with sexism in Paris. he gave me some good ideas for both. he said i could either do Dali and his views of women (which if you think about his relationship with his wife, gala, his views have got to be interesting) or i could go to the local modern art museum where they have featured women artists and he told me about gorilla girls who are i guess local feminists. any ideas?

I just went home after that and napped until dinner as usual. dinner was fine. the mom was nice and chill yesterday and it was just really relaxed. I made sure not to stuff myself cause i'm starting to notice a little weight gain. besides, we had to save some dinner for Lorene. we just had some really Delicious smelling veggies but they taste bland. they smell like spicey pizza. after we had a ciche. idk, it was just chill and nice. the dad is just so cute.

hmmm... today i just went to french class and then i hung out in the louvre trying to work on my painting presentation. Mine is the "apotheosis of Homer" by Ingres. i have to talk about the composition, colors, lighting, history, symbols, etc. hopefully i do ok. It got put off till next week, though, just like my religion project. wish me luck.

before class started, we all got there really early cause french 362 was canceled. we were just hanging out in one of the main galleries. i layed across shaina and ariel and they played with my hair. we found it funny that we were just dinking around in the Louvre. a lot of people walked past us and looked at us funny which was amusing. We then started to imitate paintings in the louvre which was really fun. ariel says that all masters start by copying other masters so we're just learning how to make great art with our bodies. one curator was laughing when ariel was making a beard out of her hair. i was afraid she was going to come tell us to stop being so roudy but i think she was actually pretty amused. I really like Shaina and Ariel because i feel pretty safe talking to them about just about anything. Ariel is so blunt to, which i love. she's so honest. we all make fun of everyone else, too. Ariel and i got really lost before getting to the main gallery. the louvre is so huge! you'd think we'd know our way around by now.

Ariel and i always get ignored.

Oh, kirsten wanted me to mention Franglish. Basically i have issues speaking english too for some reason now. sometimes i frenchify words. mostly i'll spell something french at times. I've also seemed to forget how to conjugate in english. it's interesting.

Yesterday at the RER a french women asked me if the next train was going to croissy. i was able to tell her in french that when the light next to croissy is lit up, then the train will be going there. i'm pretty pleased with myself for helping someone out in french.

It was the missionary zone conference today. I didn't really get to see a ton of missionaries, but i saw elder maxwell again. He was in paris earlier this semester and was companions with the engaged missionary i mentioned. Maxwell is actually the grandson of the big maxwell, so that's neat. i miss seeing elder maxwell around, though. he got transfered to northern france somewhere. he said that he's thinking about going to BYU after the mission so i told him that i would hopefully see him there. I may also see him at the next zone conference I guess he's been out for 16 months so the end isn't so far away for him. he's a pretty cute and nice kid.

wow, i think that's it for the random stories this go around.

Well tomorrow i have an early start. We're going to Normandy. we'll go to the beaches and Mt St Michelle and to see THE tapestry. i can't wait to tell you all about it. we should get back friday night. and saturday, Ariel and i (and maybe some of the others... hopefully not a ton) are going with todd to the catacombs. it should be fun! :)

March 6, 2010

The french family is gone! It's been incredibly nice not having to worry about always stepping on their toes or having awkward moments or anything like that. I do like them, but after having my college life basically all be on my own time, it is hard living with a family. a foreign family that i don't know, no less!

Lorene has her boyfriend and some other guy over right now. they're eating dinner as we speak. just a bit earlier they all came through my room into the wine cellar. no bras coming out of my dresser though!

ok, it's later now... goodness, i lose at this now. i got out of the habit when my computer first broke. anyways, she ate dinner with the two boys and since it was thursday, we were supposed to get dinner so at ten she brought down an microwave insignia. how nice of her. She has basically just made us college food while the family was gone.

yesterday when i woke up i left the room and someone turned on the hard core alarm so it started going off. i was able to turn it off ok, but i wasn't sure if i was supposed to do the whole answer the phone and give the password thing! it was stressful. the whole time i was showering i was afraid that the police were going to come.

Nothing too interesting happened during the week. i had my religion class which we all did about the same on. we could write paragraphs on the people we were assigned but the essay part... none of us knew. I also had my oral exam which went ok. i ended up just kind of listing stuff so i know i could have done better. oh well. For art, i was supposed to do this presentation but i couldn't understand valerie when she told me what piece i was supposed to do (and even asked for clarification... which didn't help). i emailed her asking for clarification but she never replied! basically it was just really annoying and we all think she's crazy! she wants us to memorize EVERY french painting in the louvre. Rebecca said she was going to talk to ricks about it because it was just too much. gah. well i got a new asignment so we'll see how that one goes..

I'm going to London again. we have a date set for the last weekend of March. i'm really excited. It's going to be with Courtney, Sheina, and Ariel. courtney wants to do these day tour trips. I know our family hates tours, but i don't know of any other way to get out of london to see the other parts of england. Any travel ideas would be great cause all that's perminant right now are the dates that we're going to be there. I tried to let Courtney know that I can help plan stuff having past experience, but she's pretty determined to do it all on her own. well, like i said, if you have any ideas, let me know. We're also staying at this really cheap place that's only like 20 pounds a night. nice.

We were all planning this at the Ricks' house. While there, sister ricks let us know of a secret of one of the boys on this trip. Dan Cahoon used to be part of a pretty successful boyband called Marshal Dylan in 2000. there are two music videos of it on youtube. They would tour with faith hill and stuff. there's also a wiki page about them. it's pretty crazy! I can't look at that boy the same again. he's chubby and old now. (old as in 26). it's so funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBlbe2F6Cg0 (he's the one in a red shirt and leather pants), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQHJk_kyy2U&feature=related (leading vocals in this song), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Dyllon . Oh we died laughing watching those videos. he was only 16 at the time and moved to Nashville by himself and got put in this group. pretty interesting stuff.

on thursday, i woke up and basically was going to have a day to myself but mike caught me on facebook so i decided we could do a walk together. We were going to meet up with courtney and them to do the walk but they kind of gave us no warning so i was stuck alone with mike. I forgot my walks book and he never brings him so i was kind of thinking we were screwed for that week. well it ends up he remembered most of the le defance walk so he took me to all the places and i read about them later in the walks book when i got home.

a moment of genius for mike: "i don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die" Which made me laugh a lot.

Here's my blog entry for Small Buildings Need Not Apply: La Defence:
"I really enjoyed this walk. Corry Cropper must have been in a funny mood when he wrote this walk because he said some really funny and random things. I was afraid i wouldn't like La Defense because I'm not much of one for really urban-looking sky scraper places. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that it was clean and not very crowded. All the traffic was under us, so it was nice not to worry about cars, too. My taste for modern art is growing since being here, so seeing all the nice pieces in Le Defense was pretty nice. It was just a nice and relaxing strole in a part of Paris i would have never bothered to see had it not been for this class. it was quite nice."

The next morning, i was able to catch ariel online. we decided to meet up and do two walks. Mike joined us. We did "follow the money: Palais Royal, Bourse, Covered Passages." Here's my blog entry for that walk.
"Right when i got off the metro, i saw some street performer who was blowing huge bubbles which got my childish fancy going. after that we went into the huge antique mall place which felt more like a museum than a place to actually buy stuff at. Seeing the Palais Royal was pretty fun. the modern art in it is kind of jarring and out of place. I suppose i don't understand much of the history of that place. it seems interesting. All the covered passages were neet, too. It was kind of fun to be on a street which was inside. At the Bourse, we saw lots of model looking people. we found out that it was fassion week, though, so it made sense. Ariel, Mike and i wanted to go into the wax museum but it was just a little too expensive. This walk was fun and relaxing. the palais royal was a fun place to explore. I wish the guide book had spoken a little more about the modern art that was in it. It was just a nice short walk."
Here's my blog entry for the second walk we did that day: La Route Des Manifs: Canal Saint-Martin, Republique, Bastille, Viaduc Des Arts
"This walk was very short. Ariel, Mike and I did it right after we finished the Palais Royal walk so i was pretty tired during this one. After the walk, i was left sort of feeling confused at what all we were supposed to see. the canal was very slow moving. the Place de la Republique was interesting looking. the intersections there are terrible! I'm so glad i never have to drive through Paris. The old Bastille place was interesting to see. I had stayed near there when i was in Paris four years ago, so it was fun being back. I didn't remember that there were 500 dead people at the base of the genie of liberty. the viaduc des arts would have been much more interesting had i not been so tired."

This morning, i got on facebook to see if i was going to catch anyone on. unfortunatly i never did so i decided to do a walk that ariel had done without me. it was the Seizieme Arrondissement Walk by Robert Erickson. i was heading out there by myself feeling a bit lonely when i ran into Haley at the RER station. she was unable to get a hold of anyone either and was going to do a walk by herself so we decided to do the walk together. it was nice because i hadn't hung out with Haley in a long time and i quite like her. it was just nice. Here's my entry for the blog:
"This walk was really confusing to follow. Haley and i were constantly turned around and trying to figure out where we were supposed to be. There wasn't a whole lot to see, either. Walking around the Seiziem was kind of neat, though, because for a little while, we felt like we had left Paris all together. there were even times where we felt like we were in San Francisco. We made it to the Musee Marmatton but we were so exhausted by then. i decided that impressionist work doesn't do much for me, and that i prefer art that is much more stirring. it was nice and calm in there, though. We decided to end the walk there and not do the optional part because it would have included much more walking, and we were already tired. That part of the walk sounded sketchy anyways because the guide book warned us not to go there alone."

After that walk, we headed over to Rick's place to pick up my package with the new computer in it! I'm pretty excited. it is working out for me very nicely I also got the letter with my patriarchal blessing and forwarded letters. it took everything long enough to get here! sheesh!

Sadly the family is home. now i can't sing loudly or do anything fun of the sort. i also have to catch up on my blog and such! ugh, i'm so tired. I need to get back into a better habit of writing these updates so i can tell you all the funny mundane stories from my days. Keep me on track, will you? and apparently i get the most mail out of anyone on this trip! Keep up the good work, guys! :D.

Next week is going to be a toughy. I have my presentation for religion on monday, my french test on tuesday, and my art presentation on wednesday. Wish me luck! ugh. it's going to be not fun... not fun at all.

Feb 27, 2010

wow, it's been so frustrating to not be able to email you updates every other day! i found a good temporary solution, though. i went out and bought a 16 euro keyboard. there was one for 9 euros but thankfully i read the box and it said that i basically needed a windows for it to work so i got the one that said it was no software needed. it's still nice and cheap. it's a french keyboard, but it still works like an american one so it's kind of trippy. forgive any mistakes i make. it's a good thing i can mostly type without looking. the only thing that really trips me up is a funny shaped enter key so hopefully i can get used to that. Here are some main differences between french and american keyboards that i can think of right now. the a and q are switched, and so are the w and z. the ; and m and m,./ are all messed up. the other extra things with the numbers are all different too. it's interesting.

First off, i'll start with last saturday. I met up with Ariel and even though we were super late, we decided to check out the ward chinese new year party. on my way there, i ran into miro who asked "what the heck do you BYU girls do all day?" while we were there, we ran into todd. he's the guy that didn't flirt with me which upset me a tad. remember that story? well we invited him to go on a walk with us and he said he would. he took us to eat a falafel and i didn't like it one bit! by then it was a little later so we just walked around paris randomly until we made it to luxembourg garden and we got crepes and walked around a little. after that we went to todd's apartment and watched The Count of Monte Cristo on his computer. it was fun because i felt like i was in provo again. just the whole randomly running into someone you hardly know and ending up in their apartment watching a movie. i do miss the college life a little. it was also just really fun to hang out with someone who's not in the group. especially since i don't really like the guys in my group that well... haha. so a little about todd, he's 24, graduated from utah state in economics and he's doing an internship in paris. he learned french on his mission to the ivory coast. he's a huge flirt and pretty funny and just a typical guy i guess. it was fun. he did the french kissy thing to me and ariel as we left.

on sunday i spoke a little with Miro. he's finnish, so i told him that my friend is serving a mission there and that he just sent me some finnish missionary stuff. miro wanted me to bring it to church next sunday to show him. he also did the french kissy thing. it's interesting. i kind of wish americans did it, actually.

i had dinner with the family that night. i always nap before dinner so i come up all frummpled and having to pee. there were crepes for dessert. they kept offering me more and more and since i wasn't full i kept accepting. They would chuckle when offering me more "ahaha, of course she will want ANOTHER one." and then chuckle more when i would accept. i think i had ten or so that night.

Monday was nothing special. i struggled with another test. The parts i have the worst trouble with are the fill in the blanks and the list of verbs now fit them in somehow questions. i do fine on all the other ones. sheesh. i actually understood the qui/qu'est-ce qui/que thing and duquel auquel etc. those were the parts i did the best on and i remember last time i did not understand that at all.

FHE was fun, too. we had chocolate tasting. I can't remember the company that does this chocolate but it has cocoa plantations all over the world, and like wine, each place has different flavors that go into the cocoa. One of the chocolates was supposed to have a tropical fruity taste and the other one was supposed to have a tobacco and olive taste. I was a little skeptical at first, but each piece did actually taste very different. it was kind of cool. oh man, i always eat so much junk on mondays. I played with max and jack as usual that night, riling them up for the parents before leaving. they dubbed me the tickle monster. Jack also told me that i was his favorite student which of course made me super happy. i responded by telling him he was my favorite four year old boy. I think jack likes me cause i'm not busy treating them like little kids and acting superior or fake. Kids like to be treated like equals, i think.

Tuesday, i suffered from a migraine and stayed home and caught up with pictures and things. it was nice to just stay in. I was in a daze all through dinner with the family. i don't even really remember what went on. I decided that i need to try harder to understand what they are saying. i was able to catch a couple of things like when the mom said that courtney and i were going to be home alone for a night this week and that tristan went to Nanterre. i was pretty proud of myself. I can't remember which dinner this was during but Tiphiene asked courtney and i knew any really long words in english. Courtney didn't understand the question. i did, but i couldn't think of any long words. i quickly translated for courtney and let her come up with some good words. they laughed at our idea of supercalifra... that word. i don't know how to spell it.

On wednesday, we all headed up to Versailles again for art history. our teacher, valerie took us super behind the scenes! it was so cool! she took us to the private apartments of King louis XVI and marie and through the secret doors in the walls and to places where no one is even allowed to go! That was one of marie's private drawing rooms. it had been restored in the twenties. she said "ok, we aren't allowed to go in here so let's be really quite..." and right when she opened the door, a museum curator walked in. it was really funny. we still got to see it. we even got to see the private stair cases and itty bitty attic dressing rooms for the ladies. we also went up the oldest stair case in the palace! it was seriously amazing. We also saw a guard room that had just been restored and people were jealously looking at us as we were walking over ropes and such. it was so cool. unfortunately by the end of it my migraine started to come back. we all came out the secret back way into the open and everyone crowded this giant bench and left no room for me. i was about to start crying right then and there when rebecca gave me her seat. what a sweet heart.Valerie also gave me an advil so that really helped. as soon as i went outside again i felt much better. nothing like fresh air.

on thursday, the whole group made a trip to Chartres Cathedral. some of the group were heading straight towards the cathedral. i figured i would have a few hours there and that i wanted to wander around the town which was old and beautiful. it was like a labyrinth! i got pretty lost. every corner i turned i would see more really cute old buildings. eventually i looked up to find the cathedral over the buildings and i was surprised that it was not where i expected it to be. i walked in that general direction but the allusive cathedral disappeared. i kept walking and being amazed by the town. i turned into a few dead ends and kept walking in the direction that i thought the church was. i eventually turned around a corner and stumbled right on it! it basically came out of nowhere. Chartres is really beautiful and old. it's one of the first cathedrals dedicated to Mary and it helped start the cult of mary. I saw a shrine that was supposedly mary's shawl. I also learned a little about her mom, Anne. i didn't know much about her, before. Our guide was malcom miller and he gave us little head sets so he could give us our tour. he told us that a cathedral is like a book and taught us how to read some parts of it like the stained glass windows. He was a really funny dry old english man. most people didn't really catch on, i don't think. i wish i could always have his off color commentary in my head. We also headed up the top of one of the steeples which was pretty amazing. i found the area i got lost in. i also had shaky knees from the giant climb and the heights. it was really fun.

on the ride home, a group of us decided to check out chateu de maintenon. it was in a really cute town too. unfortunately, that day i was feeling super socially awkward. i felt like i was just annoying everyone more than anything and i just felt really uncomfortable with people so i was kind of being the pokey puppy as Haley but it. it was just odd. i was also just wanting to go to the BHV to find a keyboard but we got back too late. idk, it was a weird day. it was kind of cool, though.

I made it home late for dinner and the parents were waiting for me patiently so i skarffed down everything like a beast. they were prob a tad grossed out. I told them that i needed to get an external keyboard so they helped me find a location for a FNAC to buy one. the next morning when i caught Mme. Julienne in the wine cellar i told her i had a cold so she told me where the croissy pharmacy was and what to get. it's nice that i can just ask them for help like that now.

Yesterday i spent the whole day by myself. i felt like it was a good thing after my social awkwardness the past few days. first i went to the local pharmacy to get my "jour et nuit" medicine. it's odd, i take one in the morning, noon, at dinner, and before bed. i hope it works soon! from there i decided to explore my little town a little more. i walked around where all the little stores were then walked down this road with beautiful houses and found the local hotel de ville and what i think is the local castle under construction. i'm not really sure. I then headed to the arc de triumph and found the FNAC. i was able to ask where the keyboard was in french successfully... or somewhat successfully. after that i headed back to the metro and found a store on the way. i was able to ask one of the workers there what size looked best on me. i then headed to the Marais again to find Free(p) Star (a thrift store) to do some other shopping and then headed home. i felt pretty great the whole day. and i was proud of how much french i used. it's nice to be completely independent once and a while.

Today i went to do a walk with Ariel. we did the "grand boulevards walk." It was honestly not the most interesting walk i've done so far. that part of town does look a lot better than other parts with its uniformity. there's lots of shopping to do in that area too. It was really cool seeing the opera house where Phantom of the Opera takes place. we didn't go inside of it because one of the main rooms was closed but i want to go back later. i want to see the small lake in it, although i don't think that's open for the public to see. We also walked to "place Vendome" where princess Diana stayed before she was killed in the accident. Ariel and i discussed how she could have been saved and it was pretty sad. the tall column in the middle is pretty funny because it was built from cannons captured in napoleon's victory at Austerlitz. We then headed to the Joan of Arc statue and some random french guy had me take his picture by it. idk why they always ask me. they are never happy with the pictures i take. oh well. we ended up at the garden of Tuilleries next to the Louvre. i'm hardly lost in paris because of the metro,b ut i guess i still have a hard time understanding where i am sometimes. This walk was funny too, cause ariel and i would just start walking randomly only to realize that neither of us actually know where we're going.

The family is gone this weekend on a skiing trip which means i have been singing at the top of my lungs. I paused for a little bit and Courtney facebook chatted me and asked why i stopped and that she enjoyed it, so i sang like ten more songs. my voice is all messed up from my cold, though. it was a good little nice moment between the two of us.

well i think that's everything that i have been wanting to tell you guys! it's been another long week. i'm not looking forward to the next one, either. an oral quiz in french and a test in religion. wish me luck! i love and miss you all!

Feb 19, 2010

Monday was a very long and tedious day. There's not really a lot to report on it. i had class from 9:30-3:30 so i ended up hanging out at the institute building until around 5:00 just studying and playing a little ping pong. After that we wandered aimlessly around paris until FHE at 6:00. the girls got dinner and we headed out. FHE was really fun. We had an escargot eating contest. I would have eaten a lot more if I was able to figure out how to get them out. It wasn't too bad. I figured out it was pretty easy to swallow them whole too. They tasted kind of earthy, a little like dirt. Not bad at all.

Tuesday was just one of those days where i wondered why in the world i bothered getting out of bed. I slept in a bit, but it wasn't too bad. Courtney and i ran to the RER and she barely made it and i got left behind. I still managed to make it to class on time. I was in a pretty stressed out mood and really cold. I completely fell in front of the building where the missionaries were and i really hoped that none of them saw it cause i basically rolled around after i fell. usually i would find something like that funny but i didn't. i don't think any of them saw, though. Shaina, Rosalie and i went to get some food and we got a ton of stuff. Cupcakes, Grapes, a baguette with cheese, a huge pain au chocolate, and cheese cake. It was pretty fun. I hung out with one of my better missionary friends. I found out he has a fiance which is weird. I'm all for girls waiting for missionaries, but being engaged seems a little unfair because she can't even date while he's gone. I didn't even know that that was allowed. Oh well, he's a pretty nice kid.


after class, Courtney and i went on the Parisian Necropolis: cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise walk. i was actually pretty excited because i hadn't hung out wtih just courtney in a while. I hadn't realized how long that walk was going to be. I was already really wanting to go home by then, too. At first it was really cool to be at that huge grave yard when it was all gray and snowy like that. I was mostly just interested in exploring on my own and i wasn't that interested in seeking out random people's graves. It was pretty cool to see Fontaine's grave. I think he was the most exciting one for me. I love fables. Oscar wilde's grave was pretty exciting too. it's weird how his fans go and kiss his grave. My laugh out loud moment was when we were told to look at this one guy's grave named Noir. Olivier wrote this about him: "a life size bronze statue of the murdered journalist was placed on the tonb. whether true-to-life or a sign of the sculptor's generosity, a certain prominent part of Noir's anatomy has become a fertility charm for women seeking to get pregnant." I'm glad Olivier decided to point that out to us. haha.

on wednesday, we all went to a symphony! It was orchestral de Paris and they did Symphany Fantasique by Berlioz. It was super fun. I fell asleep during the first symphany because they actually did two. The first one was le mort de cleopatra. It was kind of boring and I was really tired so I fell asleep for maybe ten minutes. Ariel said I snored a little bit. It was super fun. I couldn't watch the cello players because I would get too envious of their skills and wish I didn't suck so much. By the second movement or so, I was busy watching the percussion which is always fun. I swear those guys have the most fun. I like watching the percussion because I always feel like I could actually maybe play that for a symphony someday. I remember how fun it was to play drums really loudly during high school band. Maybe I should pick that up again sometime. Too bad i'm really bad at complex rhythms and my timing is a bit off. Ok, I make a terrible percussionist. It's still fun. It was also nice watching symphony phantastique be cause it had a plot that I understood and could fallow.

Yesterday, i went to the Dali museum with Mike. Dali's stuff is just so amazing for me. how does someone pull stuff like that out of their brains? why can't i pull things like that out? I wish i had his creativity. a good half or more of the art there was religious, and his take on it was so interesting and different. He even had some pretty interesting techniques for his art work, too. For some paintings, he shot ink bullets at his paper, then put snails on the work to let them make lines and textures and then he made images from that. All the stuff there was works from his later life, so it included a lot of 3D things like bronzes. his paintings seemed less technical and more experimental by the 60s too. I just love all his work and i am immensely jealous of his creativity. There were books in the store about him and i want to read all about him so i can start to think more like he does. I know he was kind of messed up at times, but i'm still pretty interested. There are three books i want. "The Century of Dali" by Jean Christophe Argillet (31.13 euros), "Dali" by Gilles Neret (8.50 Euros), and "The Dali Universe" by Beniamino Livi (34 euros). I want them all but i couldn't get myself to buy all of them or decide on just one to buy so i ended up getting none of them. I lose. I'll go back, though, and make a purchase. I just checked on amazon and the only one i found was "dali" for three bucks, so definitely a lot cheaper. I didn't spend as much time there as i wanted to because i had mike with me so that was disappointing. It was 6 euros to go in so i may just go back later on my own time. It's in montmartre which i love. It's so bohemian up there. i guess that makes sense because that's where the muline rouge is. i'm def going to take the family up there.

That day, i finally figured out how to do a smokey eye that doesn't look completely clownish on me! and it didn't use brown eye shadow, which i actually really don't like on me. it was really exciting. I got the idea from some gay guy who does makeup tutorials on youtube. I feel like 20 is too old to be finally figuring this stuff out. It was a big life changing moment in my life, though, so that's why i'm sharing it with you in my email.

Today i woke up late and took it easy. Courtney just wandered off on her own. Apparently she ran into Haley and Richard and hung out with them. I hung out with Rebecca and Shaina and we went on the "of Art, War, and World's Fairs: Invalides, Musee Rodin, Tour Eiffel" walk with them. it was actually really fun being just the three of us. we were all able to just relax and have fun. Basically it was a really nice walk so we just wanted to hang out outside. That aria of town isn't my favorite but it was fun to explore for a bit. I wasn't too excited about the war museums and i had already seen Rodin's museum. It was still interesting to see the invalides and the final resting place of Napoleon. Over all, it wasn't the most interesting walk i've been on. i'm glad i got it out of the way, though. after the dinner we found a chinese place to eat in. it was really nice to have some familiar food. I didn't eat that much but it filled me right up. there were a lot of american kids in there randomly. it was nice and familiar.

so dealing with the lack of working computer is kind of annoying. Skype video chat works for the most part and gchat works too. But i have to borrow courtney's computer for anything else. Sorry about my awful email this week. I would try a little better but running out of juice on her computer. I'll try to do better next time :) love you all!

ps. On monday, i was really tardy for class. Courntey just went ahead and left me so i went alone. I fell asleep on the train one stop away from mine and completely woke up at the wrong stop! i had to backtrack to make it to class. I was super late. It's a good thing we didn't have a quiz that day in class. It's also pretty funny that i slept through my stop like that. It was like as soon as i sat down i was out. good times

Feb 14, 2010

First off, happy valentines day! <3 you all and i'm missing you all here in Paris.

The London trip was really fun, and really tiring. The trip to the train station thursday morning was unbearably cold. my hand that was dragging my suitcase behind me was about to break off it was so cold. Then we had problems finding the gate that we were supposed to meet at. bad omens for one disaster after another. First off, Ariel forgot her passport. she wasn't ever around to hear the announcements because they were during classes she wasn't and her computer isn't getting internet. luckily she had a photo copy of it with her and we were able to get here there and back. I don't blame her for not remembering because if i hadn't been thinking about it randomly one night i would have forgotten without the announcements. The next bad thing to hit was that our train was a good 4-5 hours late leaving. everyone was pretty bummed to have basically one less day in London, but it was ok.

the trian ride was fun. i sat by Ariel. I was able to sleep for a little. When we came out of the tunnel in England i was actually really excited. i felt like i was coming home which i didn't expect.

We get there and i end up rooming with Haley which is one of my best friends here so that was really nice. When we got in, a lot of kids dropped out of going to Midsummer nights dream so i jumped on the chance to go. since we got there late, we really had to run for it. idk why, but when things start to not run smoothly, things start to get fun. we were running everywhere and it was really ridiculous. Since we payed for the cheapest seats, we got extremely limited views of the stage. It was so fun to see Dame Judi Dench on stage though! she looks great in real life. I loved hearing her voice. the play didn't drag on too much (which midsummer nights dream does for me quite often) so that was really nice. Afterward, we got hamburgers and had to hurry on the train home before it shut down for the night. We decided to dub ourselves the midsummer clique.

On the train home, Sister Ricks was talking about how there's so much teasing in schools in the states and not so much in Europe. She and a couple other kids agreed that it's cause of extra curricular activities in american school systems. Later that night, Haley and i discussed how we actually think extra curricular activities are good things. it gave us stuff to do whereas we would have been sitting at home doing nothing. also, we discussed how there's really nothing wrong with cliques. everyone has different interests so of course they would hang out with other kids with same interests. It's ok that the shoppers only hang out with each other. I am not that interested in shopping so i don't feel excluded. not to mention, the only time i had an issue with bullying was in england when those huge 5th graders would chase me (i was five at the time, so yes, they were huge). i'm also not quite as sensitive to what others may perceive as teasing.

I like having sister ricks around because she adds some matronly feel around when it's seriously lacking. it's not overbearing or anything, but it's there.

The next day, hanging out in London was pretty fine. none of us really planned that well what we were going to do. I was just tagging along because i honestly didn't care that much what we decided to do. The girls decided to buy tour bus tickets which i went along with. Haley and i ended up being kind of mad that we did because we really could have just taken the metro everywhere which was already payed for. I was pretty glad for it when it was raining so i could see a bit of london without having to go outside. It rained on us pretty hard and i got wet so the rest of the day was really miserable for me. being wet is not fun at all. First, we went to see big ben, the parliament building and the Abbey all in one stop. it was pretty cool i guess. as cool as looking at random buildings can be. we ran into the boys there so i chilled with them for some time but Courtney, angela, and i lost the rest of the girls so we ended up being by ourselves the whole day. we went to the tower of london to look at the jewels and hung out there for a while. i was still miserably cold. after that, we went to an english pub right in town to have some fish and chips. it was so yummy. This one guy held the door open for us to get in and then he joked about how we all owed him a pint. the guy who took my order at the pub was really cute. he asked where i was from and asked if there is any good american football there. when i said no he said "oh sorry..." and i laughed about that because why would he be sorry about that? it was fun being there

that night we headed to the opera. we saw Cosi Fan Tutte which is a comedy. Honestly if we saw an opera that was a tragedy or just not a comedy, i would have been bored to tears. as much as i want to sound cultured and say that i was enthralled by it... i wasn't. thankfully, because it was a comedy, i wasn't too bored. it is amazing what they can do with their voices, no doubt about that. I thought the men singing sounded much better than the women singing. and i'm also glad wooing women isn't actually like it was portrayed in that play. "i'm going to stab myself i love you so much even though i have only known you after a day." it was really funny and over the top. The ending of the opera seemed like it should have been light hearted because the last song was all "we have to learn how to laugh at life" sort of thing but the director made it seem serious and depressing which didn't sit well with me. of course in real life, that story would have ended not happy but it just seemed really off in that performance.

the next day, haley and i went off by ourselves because we didn't really want to do the river cruise. we went to get our little english breakfast which was so good. It was nice to have some protein in my breakfast and to actually be filled! French food never fills me, and i think that's why i always eat here. it's super annoying. :(. but i had some good beans on toast. suhweet. after that we made our way to the Museum of London. It ended up that tons of tube stops, especially the ones we needed, were closed down for the weekend. we managed to find a buss that would take us where we needed to go but it took a while. the museum of london is balling! I liked that it wasn't another art museum, which although they are cool, that's all i have been going to in paris. It was just artifacts and reconstructed stuff from different aras in london. I also liked that it was child friendly because it just made it more interesting, fun, and relaxed. the fact that it was free was also a big plus. everything in london seems to cost money. Notre Dame is free to go into but westminster abbey is not. everything costs. I told the Ricks that they should go there next time they were in London because as interesting as the national gallery of portraits is, i'm sure their kids would have way more fun at the other place. After that, Haley and i tried to go to one of the market places in london. i forget which one. It was pretty fun but i was completely overwhelmed and couldn't find anything i wanted to buy. it was too crowded and too much stuff. i stink at shopping i guess.

the entire time i was in London, i couldn't help but compare the londoners to parisians. Londoners are just more friendly. i like how they actually joke, laugh, and smile. if i walked into a museum or store, they didn't make me feel unwelcome. Parisians always act like they just can't wait for us to leave. Londoners are much much better looking than parisians. Londoners also dress better i think. they had color in their clothing. I always thought of english people as dressing dark and not being super open and friendly OR good looking. after having to be with parisians all the time, i have changed my views. I couldn't help but resent parisians after that trip. I also liked the tube system. it was WAAAY cleaner than the metro, and not as many sketchy people there either. the fact that the tube was closed down was really annoying though. I feel like paris itself is a more interesting city and cheaper so i'm glad to be here.

our train was late for the trip home, but not as bad. i was sleeping peacefully until i woke up to garret shoving a bit of sandwich in my mouth and about six pairs of eyes looking at me and laughter. A french lady saw the whole thing and laughed a little bit. it was pretty classic. Because we were so late, i missed the valentines dance which actually really depressed me. We decided that that trip ended up being kind of useless. it was fun, though. because of all the delays, we got 1 1/2 two way tickets to london for free, so that's lucky! :) i want to do stuff outside of london though. i've never been a huge fan of the city there. we also all decided that if we go back we need to plan it way way better than we did. it was interesting, though. very fun.

church was ok, but i was extremely tired so it dragged on a bit. a boy named Miro invited me to go to a baptism but i told him i had no where to hang out between church and the baptism so he invited me and a few other kids to his house to eat between the two. I found out he's spanish from malaga and i told him that i was there but i couldn't remember where all we went while there. i was surprised because i thought he was american, his english is so good. Somehow Barcelona came up and Miro was all "i hate barthelona. i hate Catelonians. they want independence from spain." it was amusing, and i didn't know that. The baptism was ok, i was still super tired. It was two Iranian girls who got baptized. their dad is in prison in Iran because he converted to the church before it was a law to be muslim there and he didn't give up the religion. The girls found the missionaries when they came to france. The missionaries had a hard time at first to get the girls to be baptized because they aren't usually allowed to teach muslims (which i guess they used to be). it was interesting. I had fun chatting with the elders while i was there. I miss american boys so much. they were just being super cute and acting like silly boys. i liked it.

I had dinner today. nothing spectacular happened. we had some sort of yummy green soup. They asked what i did today and i told them i had food with an american boy and a spanish boy not from our group. Tristan made this "woooo" noise and lauren explained that it's a big deal to have a date on valentine's day. I said it wasn't a date and then the mom said "look out for the spaniard." haha.

After dinner, Courtney got hymes from the internet and she played them on the piano upstairs and we sang. My voice was all messed up from the massive nap i took before dinner so i didn't sound that great. it was really fun to just play some music and Lidwin and the mom enjoyed it. they even stood around for a little bit to listen. it was nice to be able to sing like that again.

Feb 10, 2010

Hey! i've finally borrowed courtney's computer for a late update. Her keyboard is really big so it's a bit hard for me to type. I'm used to my tiny computer!

It's a good thing i've been having computer troubles at this time because nothing interesting has really been happening. last saturday i can't even remember what i did. i think that was the day that i went into town with Ariel and we went shopping. I bought these gray almost light purple boots that come up over my knees. i'm very happy with my purchase. other than that, i didn't buy anything. I partially wanted to wait until the london trip because Laura Ricks told us about this market place where they sell rocker type clothing which seems pretty intriguing to me! we'll see. i hate spending money so i'll prob not buy anything anyways.

I suppose i should also write about having dinner with the family on thursday. I was super hungry that day for some reason so i came upstairs with the plan to eat a lot. I see pasta looking stuff in a bowl with a little ham. I realize it's more of a salad which i'm ok with and i take two huge scoops. My first bite was a shocker. It was just a lot of onions chopped up with a little bit of ham mixed with some strong spice. I had so much on my plate but it was all onions! it wasn't anything i couldn't handle. I just tried to wolf it down as quick as i could so i could move on to something better tasting like stinky cheese. I never though i would be getting a bad taste out of my mouth by eating stinky cheese! I was still really hungry after and kept asking for more cheese and bread. the family was really surprised whenever i asked for more. and i had yogurt. Usually they offer me more food, so having to ask for it myself was a bit uncomfortable. I also used the word D'accord (ok) in a way an american would say it by asking if it was ok if i could have more bread. they were all amused. The dad was going to get up to leave the table but the mom told him to stay because i was still eating some bread. I felt bad and wanted to say that it was ok, but after my other mess up with d'accord, i didn't want to try so instead i just swallowed my bread down in one huge bite. Usually i don't eat that much when i am not being fed by the family so when i am being fed i try to fill up as best as i can. the sad thing is that usually i'm still a little hungry after dinner.

This sunday was fast sunday. church was interesting. I had another hard time understanding anything during relief society and sacrament meeting but i understood most of what was said during sunday school. there's nothing too interesting to report about it. I sat by ariel during sacrament and neither of us understood what was being said so we ended up chatting the whole time. I can't even remember about what. I know, i should try better during church.

In paris, during the first sunday of every month, a lot of museums are free. Ariel, Haley, and chelsea (i think that's it) went to the Rodin museum. I honestly didn't know much about Rodin. I have of course heard of The Thinker. i wasn't sure how i felt about his work at first. None of his sculptures that were out in the gardens felt all that personal to me. When i went inside, though, everything started to click in my mind. I really appreciate the rough imperfection of his work and the raw emotions that they evoke. I would be interested to go back again.

Rebecca, courtney and Rosalie got invited to the house of our single adult teacher for dinner. he's american doing an internship in Paris and seems fairly young. The guy who wouldn't flirt with me, Tod, was there too. I was almost sad i didn't go to that instead but not really. The teacher's french girlfriend was there and i guess the guys were talking about her scandalous past and were teaching the girls some French slang and stuff. I guess the girlfriend isn't LDS. The teacher found out that Rosalie is waiting for a missionary and lectured her on how that's dumb. It rubbed her the wrong way because he was the one busy dating a non LDS girl. I don't blame her.

I had dinner with them on sunday again. It smelled really good from downstairs.. like a spicy yummy pizza. it was just a broccoli and cauliflower casserole. it was still pretty yummy though. I decided to try some more plain yogurt. I knew to put in sugar but i didn't realize how much i would need to make it manageable. I basically pored all their sugar in my yogurt and it was still a little bitter. It was super hardy, though. I would eat it again. I just felt bad about using all their sugar and they had very little to pour in their yogurt. After we had all eaten everything, they offered me a banana. i said no but they asked again and for some reason i couldn't resist. Lidwin laughed a little at me eating so much again. I could tell the family was bugging tristan about what kind of career path he should take. i could tell he was a little annoyed but handled it well. I wanted to say that i knew how hard that choice is cause i still can't decide... but i didn't know how to in french. After dinner, Lauren and Tiphine asked if saying "you're the one" and "you're the first" was the same thing. I tried telling them that we basically never say "you're the one" sept having to do with star wars and they laughed. I wasn't sure what context they were talking about. Answering the question was kind of hard, too because Courtney was trying to help but in her unassertive and timid round about giggly way. oh well, i hope they don't think we're retarded. it was kind of amusing. After i went into my room i heard Tristan and his dad get in a short but heated shouting match. a female voice was throwing her two cents in as well. I have no idea what it was about but i wonder if it had anything to do with them bugging him about choosing a career direction.

The next day i had my first french test. I was nervous because everyone knows i have already taken 201 before so i know they expected me to do really well. of course i didn't do really well cause i seem to have the opposite of the gift of tongues. My religion teacher (who's french) was saying that when learning a new language, one should learn phrases and learn to fill in the blanks. he said that learning a new language, learning the specific rules and grammar, then trying to lace it together is a really really hard way to do it. I feel like that's how the french program is. I understand the concepts fine, but for some reason, there's a shortage in my brain when it comes to applying them to test questions. It's hugely frustrating. I'm still so lost when i learn french and i still can't help but feel hopeless with french. none of this is going to stick, i feel like. I'm not happy about it because Learning french and having my kids grow up bilingual is a goal i have had for forever and it's looking like it's not going to happen now.

Yesterday i just had french then came home right after because it was snowing. i slept all day and woke up... did nothing... then slept again. it was a very relaxing day.

Today, i had language and then a break while the 102 kids were in class. The missionaries were having a district meeting so all the young elders were hanging out in the building. I felt a little awkward cause i didn't want to be in their way or anything. I've known for a while now that missionaries are just silly boys my age who were like the guys i hung out wtih all last year. This makes it hard for me not to feel too comfortable with them cause i just want to joke around and stuff. I was talking to them a little but Richard did most of the talking. I was trying to do my reading when one cute french missionary from France with big brown eyes came up and started talking with me. It was fun. We talked about how i've been to NIce and how he should go to yellowstone. He talked about why he misses Nice. "i would open my window and see the city. aaah" I didn't want to get him in trouble though. what a cutie. No address, though :( haha. maybe i'll see him later. He said he thinks being french and learning english is easier than being american and learning french. "i learned english and it waz no problem for me."

After French 102, Garret came out and we played a round of ping pong. I'm very rusty. It was fun to play around. It's weird taking a class from a kid who i think of more like a peer. He's actually taking two classes here because that's the policy to be a student teacher. He's a terrible student! he doesn't take notes, he naps, he leaves to eat sandwiches. It's weird. but he's fun to hang out with. Another boy, Richard, is known for being the crazy asian. He doesn't really like to talk to me or anything that much which was ok, but i wondered why because i thought we would be great partners in crime. I realized, though, that he gets his enjoyment from reactions and shock. It takes a lot to shock me so i guess he is just bored with me because i would rather have some banter than be all shocked and laugh at his antics. whatever.

We all headed to Versailles for art history today. I was just following the crowd but they got lost. I don't blame them, the RER line we had to take there took like 7 different forks so it was confusing. I had this song called "replay" stuck in my head because the girls in my family kept humming it last night. (lidwin told me that she likes american music much better than french). i managed to get that song stuck in everyone's heads. it was grand. Haley happened to have it on her ipod so Ariel and i were listening to it and started dancing in our seats in the train. Oh, it was so nice to move! it was so much fun. We decided that we had to go to the young single adult's valentine's day dance when we came back. from london. Some of the "cooler" girls thought that it sounded dumb so they don't want to go. again... whatever. it was fun to be crazy and not care the whole way to versailles.

We were a little late to class, which was too bad. she took us around the outside to view the facade of the house. the front part with all the gold was old fashioned when Louise XIIV built it, and i asked her why, and she said she didn't know but a lot of the inside was also outdated by the time it was built as well. It was fun to hear more details about the place, and more about the decorations. it's interesting that france was more into classical and never got into baroque. everything was so symmetrical. The place closed so we got to have it to ourselves for a while. we were even allowed to walk over some of the barriers to take closer looks. We also had the hall of mirrors all to ourselves! it was fantastic. we had a great time prancing around and taking pictures.

The ride home was uneventful except that i really had to go to the bathroom and i knew i had to wait for another hour till i would be home. I really wish the French had public bathrooms... I basically talked to Mike the whole time home. He's super chill so i'm really chill when i'm with him. we talk about kind of boring things but i'm never bored so that's good. no one else really enjoys it, though. Another boy named Bart is also really cool. i never hang out with him cause he hangs out with another crowd, but he's super chill and laughs at everything and just a person i would like to hang out with, so i think i'm going to make more of an effort to do so. I laughed when i learned that his guilty pleasure is also the song "halo" by beyonce.

Tomorrow we're leaving for London! We're going to see an Opera there, but other than that, we really have nothing else planned. a lot of kids are going to plays and the like but i didn't manage to get tickets so i'm wondering what i'll be doing while they're all out. It should be fun. I'm super excited to be back out in the english speaking world. I'll def write all about it!