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.