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!
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