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!
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