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.