I realize I've been doing a lot of listing and just telling what I've been doing and no real reflections as of late. With every new place we visit here I feel almost rejuvenated like a whole new life is ahead of me. It's a wonderful feeling. Although I've only been here 2 weeks, I just feel like I live here. Honestly, I could never go back to the states and be 100% content with my life. I'd just travel through France and all of Europe and write about it all. If I had family money I would so do that... Alas, this is unrealistic.
Anyway, I've grown accustomed to the ways here and am probably gonna get huge culture shock when I get back home. I'm so used to colorful money and coins actually counting as real money it's gonna be weird to see a dollar bill. Also, I now look completely different and oh so french you probably won't recognize me when I get back. Here's a picture of what I look like now:
This was taken the other day while I was walking to the bookstore in the village nearby. I started singing about the baker that crossed my path and all of a sudden people were following me and singing about how weird I am.... so bizzare.
ALSO! I met this cute boy here and we are totally dating now. He's my french boyfriend and I would have never thought I would fall hard for someone like him. He's got gorgeous blue eyes and dark hair. Here's a picture of him for you all to see!
So this weekend was very eventful! On Friday I got to sleep in for the first time on this trip and let me tell you it was glorious. At night there was this huge festival called Estivales (festivals in french -- very difficult to translate I'm sure) in the main square where you bought a wine glass for 4 euros and got to try 3 different types of wine. I had one rosé and 2 whites and they were delish. I had some bbq sausage with hummus at one of the stands and then walked around a bit with the group. I also may or may not have gotten separated from the group so I walked around by myself for a while looking at all the cool stuff at the little tables. There was this awesome band playing called Las Vegas Wedding and they sang some oldie American songs that made me feel like I was home. After Estivales we went to our usual spot at Shakespeare (Yup we have a usual now) and played some darts and talked to some french guys. The yewsh.
Saturday once again was sleep in time for sim! A bunch of us then went to the same market that we went to on tuesday and got some more fresh goodies. Michelle, Lizzy, and I then attempted to go to the beach on our own, but failed miserably. We took a tram all the way down and then couldn't find the bus stop to take us to the beach. We walked around and back to the previous stop and asked a bunch of people who all said different things. So we got right back on the tram and went home. I like to count that experience as an adventure.
Then Lizzy, Michelle, Beth, Natalie, and I made a DELICIOUS dinner in my room. We made sausage on baguette with guac, lettuce, and tomatoes. We also cooked some zucchini, potatoes, and onions on the side. So domestic. ALSO - WE FINALLY FOUND PEANUT BUTTER!! We've been on the lookout for a while now and been craving it hardcore- but we finally found it at this store near the dorms. SUCCESS. The night ended with a cute movie night in Aryelle's room where we watched Baby Mama, which is only the funniest movie ever. *sidenote - I know y'all don't know the names I'm writing but I'm trying to use more names so you can get familiar with my friends here.*
Oh, I know! I'll do a little breakdown of the people I mention each time.
In order of appearance:
- Marie: awesome cute woman who is the director of the whole program. She's french but lives in New Orleans and works at UNO
- Michelle: sweetest girl ever and one of the people I hang out with most here. She asks the bests questions ever when we play 20 questions... From UNO.
-Lizzy: Drexel girl from Abington - only my long lost bee eff eff. We live across the hall from each other and always say the same things at the same time. We also speak in Russian voices a lot.
- Beth: From Boston. Basically this girl is the shit and we have adopted her into our Drexel fam. I always sing "Beth I hear you callin..." to her.
- Natalie: Also a Drexel girl. Lives next door to me and is hysterically rambunctious. That's the only way to describe her. Also, a baller.
- Aryelle: Marie's daughter and has been on the trip 19 years. We are Taylor Tequila Twins and everyone is jealous of us. duh.
Yesterday was Sunday and a few of us woke up early to try to get tickets for Barcelona for the last weekend. This was another great adventure... We walked all the way to the train station to be denied. Then were told to go to the bus station so we took a tram down 6 stops to find out that the bus station was closed... good times. But at least we made it back in time for the Tour de France! We waited 2 hours by the closed off street until the caravan finally came by. They were tossing free shit to all of us and people were going bat shit crazy! You would think these were starving people who hadn't eaten in days and needed that baggie of 5 gummy bears to survive... nuts. Then the tour went by in about 30 seconds, but it was still the coolest thing ever and I got some awesome pics out of it!
Ok are y'all ready for the dramz?!
Backstory: So our dorms are all in these buildings that have a courtyard in the front. The courtyard is the only place we get internet and where we all hang out most of the time. "Quiet hours" start at 10:30, but are loosely enforced and are only a problem when people start yelling. There are a few grad students in our program and most of them are cool. 2 uncool grad students are: Lacar (who asks dumb questions and is rude to everyone - even teachers in class and it's way awk) and Ann Michelle (who got stuck in Italy bc of the train strike and whom I have never met until last night...)
SO last night Aryelle, Lizzy, Beth, Michelle, Blake (Marie's son and Aryelle's older bro), and Josh (UNO kid) were playing 20 questions in the courtyard. At about 11:30 pm Lacar (what the hell kind of name is Lacar?!) creeps down from her room in the front corner of the place and comes up to us and says, "Ummmm - my room is all the way over there and I can hear you guys yelling and I can't sleep.... soooooo..." To which yes, maybe a little rudely laughed... but said we would be quiet. As she walked away she mumbled under her breath " No really... just shut the hell up." Whatever, we ignored it and began to legitimately whisper the rest of our game.
All of a sudden we see Lacar and Ann Michelle sitting on the steps in front of their dorm staring at us. Whatever, we were playing our game quietly and laughing a bit at the situation. THEN they come marching on over and Ann Michelle began ripping us a new one with quotes that included:
"OK SO... this could go one of two ways... either I can treat you like adults or I can treat you the way you are acting and treat you like children."
"We can stand here all night and recite the magna carta..."
"Sweetheart, don't you understand the concept of an if then statement"
"I am from New York so I know just how to handle people like you."
To which we obviously freaked out -- Lizzy taking charge of the firing back comments such as:
"That doesn't even make any sense..."
"You guys were sitting on the steps soooo you weren't even trying to sleep."
Meanwhile I'm trying to moderate the situation and trying to have people speak in turns but it was quickly escalating and I was failing miserably. Until she started pulling out the sweetheart term and saying she's "from new york." Bitch, I am from Philly and I will beat your ass if I have to. I totally could. Anyway it finally ended when we said we would have gladly moved to the back if they came out nicely and asked instead of condescendingly screaming at us like we were 4 years old. So she "nicely" asked and we walked away to prove a point. As she watched us like our damn mother saying she couldn't wait for Marie to yell at us tomorrow. Little did she know that Marie had already called Blake asking about the situation because they called the EMERGENCY number to report us "yelling." Bitches are crazy and got yelled at today. Also, the entire group was buzzing with this story all day today everywhere you turned. Legendary.
So I was gonna write about my day today, but my computer is about to die... so I'll fill you guys in on the next post!
<3
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