I Guess I'm Just Les Genoux des Abeilles

Les genoux des abeilles = the bees knees.

Let me expand on that a little. So I was doing homework last night; I had opted to not go out dancing with some of my friends. Around 1:15AM (not bad for me) I decided to go to bed. The easiest way for me to illustrate this scene is in the form of a script...and So I present to you:

Cell Phone ARRGH :( aka What Happened Last Night
Time: 1:30 AM
Me: zzzzzzzz
Cell phone: RING RING RING BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ RING
Me: ...allo?
Cell phone: Bonjour Erica? C'est Florian ca va? (blah blah blah let's hang out on Saturday oh are you asleep my bad)
Me: Grunt.

Time: 2:00 AM
Me: zzzzzzzzzzz
Cell phone: BEEP BEEP BUZZ BUZZ
Me: &%&^% ??
Cell phone: Sean says: You're going to be yourself for Halloween?
Me: bah. :-|

Time: 4:00 AM
Me: zzzzzzzzzz
Cell phone: BEEP BEEP BUZZ BUZZ
Me: ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!?!?
Cell phone: Alex (non-roommate) says I am by your house!!
Me: ummm....zzz.

Time: 4:01 AM
Me: zzzzz
Cell phone: BEEP BEEP BUZZ BUZZ
Me: grooooan.
Cell phone: Alex (non-roommate) says come outside!!
Me: wait, is this a joke?! zzzzz

Time: 4:02 AM
Me: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Cell phone: RING RING RING BUZZ BUZZ RING
Me: Whaaaaat :'(
Cell phone: Hiii it's Alex I'm close to your house and I was wondering if you wanted to come hang out!
Me: It's 4 in the morning, Alex...
Cell phone: I know but I'm walking home from dancing and I passed your house and I was going to leave at like two but then my friends were like "no stay stay!" and so I stayed and I was about to leave and this song came on and it went like "(singing) lalalaaaa lalalalalaaaa" and...oh you were sleeping weren't you"
Me: ....................
Cell phone: Okay then beaux reves belle fille!
Me: *sob*

I would have just turned my phone off, but it is also my alarm clock...so no luck.

Anyway, costume party tonight, yayayayayayayayay!!!

My ACCENT??

Last night I went to dinner at my friend's house. I met this particular friend (his name is Samuel) at the post office in Angers a couple months ago. What was weird about this dinner is that Samuel left for Scotland about a month and a half ago. Ergo, I went to dinner at Samuel's house...to eat with his family, who I didn't know at all. But they have a couple daughters who are learning English, and decided to profit from Samuel's anglophone friends (my roommate went too). We, of course, decided to profit from the offer of free food.

The family ended up being super nice; we sat around and ate for a good two hours or so. Meanwhile, Alex and I spoke English to Camille, Samuel's sister. She understood well enough (her friend had no idea what was going on), but seemed to have an easier time understanding Alex. I wondered about that, and tried to slow down my speech. Not much luck. Camille's mom explained to me later: "I think Camille and Marie (the friend) have trouble understanding you because of your accent." and I thought to myself "Oh, okay---wait, what? I have an accent?!" Apparently people from the Ohio/Pennsylvania region have some sort of accent that's hard for non-native English speakers to understand...and the more I think about it, the more I can kind of hear it, at least compared to Alex. It must be the muted 't' sound (like, when I make that sound, it's not as pronounced as someone learning English would need it to be).

On the one hand, I'm sad that I'm currently of less use to these girls than Alex is; I tried to enunciate my syllables, but my Ohioan twang must be too strong because they still had to work to comprehend. On the other hand, maybe it's good for me there with my "accent." It's not very strong, and it's probably good for these girls to get used to different accents in English, since there are so many. Anyway, they invited us back at least two more times, which is very cool.

Speaking of Samuel, Alex and I are going to visit him in Scotland in about two weeks...I'm pretty excited. We're most likely going to visit Loch Ness, and if that's the case, Samuel and I have dared each other to jump in for a quick swim...it's going to be sooooo cold, but so fun. I can't wait.


Here's an unfortunately aimed picture of Matt, boy Alex, me, Katy and girl Alex!

Pumpkin Pictures!

Woohoo two entries in one day!! I know there exists an exponentially more bizarre picture of me carving pumpkins, but it's on Brittany's camera, and I'll show you that as soon as I have it.

The one that looks like it says "fail" at the top right is mine...way to go, self.

Pumpkins, Candy, and Axe Murderers

Last night was a much-needed break from everything French. My friends and I all gathered at this bar where we like to hang out, because the owner decided she was going to buy a ton of pumpkins for us to carve. So! We carved pumpkins :). It was kind of hard, because French pumpkins are not at all like American pumpkins...

An American pumpkin

Some French pumpkins

So you see, carving one of these flat friends wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. I tried to carve the word "Falstaff" into mine (that's the name of the place where we carved the pumpkins)...it kind of worked. There will be pictures eventually, but I didn't take any so I'm at the mercy of my friends as far as that goes.

After we finished carving pumpkins, Alex² (two friends named Alex, therefore Alex squared...) and I went for dinner, then went back to Falstaff to watch two gratuitously violent movies (The Hills Have Eyes 2 and Grizzly Park). The Hills Have Eyes 2 was exactly like the original, only with less burning alive and more random men trapped in port-a-potties. Grizzly Park was probably the dumbest movie I've ever seen, but in the company of friends it was fun to watch.

About Halloween costumes...I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not. But! I've determined that I own enough black and white striped clothing to be a prisoner if I need a costume. :)

Chipotle

:( This is, oddly, what I miss most about being at home. Sigh. Less than two months, tasty burrito bol, less than two months.

Living Dead

I'm pretty sure that's what they'd call someone like me right about now. I'm so exhausted that no amount of coffee can save me, and I have too much work to take a nap. Normally I never choose working over sleeping, but I want to go to my friend's friend's band's concert tonight, and so I need to get everything done. Plus, I'm waiting at the university until 3:30 for my other friend, so we can go get coffee.

I think, no I know, the problem is that I'm only getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep every night. I know it's not enough, but I'm afraid that if I sleep, I'll miss something. I mean, it's not every day that I'm in France (well right now it is, but that's not the point). And it's not so much that I expect something horribly interesting to happen at 3 in the morning here (although sometimes things happen), but I can never say no to an invitation to do something interesting, which means that I'm up later working and tending to my own homeostasis (aka showering and feeding myself every once in a while) and therefore exponentially more tired.

Tonight I will go to bed early. <---I say that every night; it never happens.

Hmmm...

I've been boring lately. I spent my weekend hanging out with some French kids. On Friday, we went to a concert for a band that was very cool. Not much else to report. Here's pictures from Germany!

the door to the Dom, the giant cathedral in Cologne

Sooo huge!!!

Outside the cathedral (I'm not kidding, huge.)

The stained-glass windows were amazing.

Me, Didem, and Brittany. The hand thing is our sorority sign...I'm not in a gang or anything haha.

Wuh?

So today in my art history class, we stopped talking about prehistoric art, and started talking about a period that, roughly translated, is the period of Antiquity (I know nothing about art in English). It went from the first century BC to the fourth century AD, our professor explains to us. And this girl somewhere behind me raises her hand and says something to the effect of "Umm...I don't..." and before she could finish, my professor goes on to explain how BC and AD work. The girl responds with "Oh I know but these dates...I don't agree." Now, it wasn't that she disagreed with the time period in which this particular art movement happened...she disagreed with using "before Christ" and "after Christ". And I'm sitting here thinking, "Hold on a minute girl, do you mean to say 'I reject your reality and would like to substitute my own'? Are you really disagreeing with a time system that is essentially universally accepted by Christians and non-Christians alike, just because you don't believe in Jesus? That seems unnecessarily snooty and standoffish." The professor had to explain to her that she wasn't talking about religion, just art. Well, duh. Come on now. It makes me wonder, if this girl is so opposed to our dating system being based around Jesus, how does she function? I can just imagine it...

Random person: When is your birthday?
Girl: [random date], twenty years ago.
Random person: Okay, so 1988?
Girl: No, just twenty years ago.


Brittany and I felt sort of like this about the whole thing:
That's actually a picture of our "I don't speak German" faces, but same difference. Anyway, I have my last class of the week in about twenty minutes...I'm not sure how I'm going to survive, I'm so tired. It's hard having the internet at my house and all my friends in a time zone that's six hours behind me...my 2AM is their after-dinner chill on the internet time. It's rough.

ZzZzZz...

Pardon my utter lack of interesting updates, but now that we've settled into our classes, not much of interest happens.

I did, however, try to explain baseball to someone who had never seen it before. That's really hard to do, especially when you don't know any baseball words in French...like, how do I explain a strike? I can't use the word "greve" because that means a strike that workers go on...I can't use the word "coup" because that's the kind of strike that leaves bruises...so therein lies the challenge!

Mostly I've been sitting around in my room. There's not much to do at the university, and it's been raining...so I've been watching a whole entire TV series on my computer and reading books. Hooray!

Tomorrow I'm apparently going to a concert, so this should be fun :D

A Bad Joke?

So ten Asians, two Russians, a Frenchman and an American walk into a room....

...no actually, it's my Business French class. I'm the only anglophone there.

Wow.

Here's a kind of random picture of me and Brittany and Paul!

Hooray!!

It's so nice out today, I think I'm going to spend the whole day reading in the park--how wonderful is that! I hope I have enough book left to read....we'll see, I guess.

Not much else to report yet...so here's some pictures from my last day in London! (perhaps I'll take my camera out with me today and take some pictures of the park(s))Here's the Tower of London!

Here's a newspaper I found in a bush; I thought the headline was funny.

Here's where a bunch of people got beheaded/hacked to bits in the Tower of London, yummy.

Here's the white tower, inside the tower of London.

And here's Tower Bridge with a boat in front of it!

Thus concludes my London saga...stay tuned for Cologne! (and maybe even some more Angers...)

Oh PS. I got my hair cut. Here's the result...not as short as I wanted, but I still like it:

Woo! Okay, park time!

Eh bien.

Okay! I've decided which courses I'm taking and they are as follows: Language, Translation, Business French, 19th Century Literature, and Art History. I figure it's not worth fighting with the political science department back at home, so I'll just finish my minor when I get back. Plus, I know I'd never think to take an art history class in the states. So that's that.

My dad is coming out to Europe this weekend, but I won't get to see him. That's too bad, but Poland and Romania are nowhere near where I am, so I understand. I mean...I could always take one of those shady Ryanair flights and go see him, but he's on a business trip, and probably wouldn't have time for me. But it's all good!

In other news, my meal plan ran out, so I'm on my own as far as eating goes. This makes me nervous, but is probably a good thing, since I'm always terribly nervous when I try to order food here. I'm not sure of the etiquette, or the right words to say and...oh wow!!! Do you ever cut yourself and not notice you did it??! Yikes...I guess this puts me down another pair of pants. Talk about needing to do laundry...I officially have one clean pair of pants left...which are khaki. Actually! I caught it early enough and got the whole stain out...now I just have a wet spot on my pants, boo. Man, cleaning up blood wasn't something I had on my list of things to do today. Anyway, I digress.

Oh yeah, food. I need to figure out how to live on a budget and not be malnourished. This will be interesting. Here's some pictures from Day 2 in London!

We went to this GIANT store called TopShop...they had pretty much everything, so I tried this crazy number on. America's Next Top Model? Maybe? Maybe?

Brittany tried on a...well, this.

Here we are with our front row seats...

...for this little play you might have heard of...

Yeah, we had front row seats to Wicked. Sweet.

The Longest Blog in the History of Ever

Hello, sorry I haven't updated my blog in a week or so...I've been either extraordinarily busy or extraordinarily lazy...unfortunately it's been the later since I returned from Germany, but here I am now so yay!

(On a side note, I was up until 4 in the morning talking with my friends from the states last night, and I woke up at 7:30, so I'm horribly, horribly tired. Bear with me.)

Anyway! I don't know where to begin. How about some subheadings!!!

School
My first "official" day of classes was yesterday. This consisted of once again taking placement tests (ugh) and then spending the rest of the day "shopping" for courses. I went to Art History, Contemporary Geopolitics, and Business French. The only one I know for certain that I'm taking is Business French. I can opt to take it 3 hours a week and then take the University's exam at the end of the semester, or take it 6 hours a week, take the University's exam, and then take something called the DFA1 in January. The DFA1 is a test I can take to get a diploma that basically certifies me in the speaking of business French. I would typically take it in France, but since I'll be back home I have to find a French Chamber of Commerce in the US and take the test there. So I'm going to do that. Business French will be the death of me.

I think I've ruled out contemporary geopolitics, because I can't understand the professor.

We still have to take language classes (that's what the placement tests were for). I placed into the highest one again, and again I have no idea how, but I can't complain. The only thing I'm dreading somewhat is the fact that I have to write a 3000 word essay...in French. (That's about 10-12 pages according to the google search I just did...I think I feel faint, haha). Otherwise, it shouldn't be that bad.

I know for certain that I'm taking a French/English translation course (they also offer French/Japanese, but I think that would be a bit too challenging), and my other options are: The Politics of the 5th Republic, Art History, and 19th century literature. I have to pick two of the three, which will be hard. Art History would be interesting, but I don't need it for anything. Politics of the 5th Republic would be dreadful, but I'm tired of Allegheny's political science department and would like to finish my minor here. Taking a literature course would clear up some space in my schedule when I get home, because I need to take one more to complete the literature requirement for my major. So, the poli sci class and the lit class would make completing my psychology minor much easier...but wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable as art history. Unfortunately, I'm starting to think enjoyable is going to have to fall by the wayside, because there are only so many hours in my day.

Germany
I really didn't do all that much in Germany, which is perfectly fine with me. I went and saw the Dom, which is this amazingly huge cathedral. We strolled around the city at night, but mostly we just hung out with Didem and her friends, which in all honesty was the kind of vacation I needed. I haven't uploaded my pictures from Germany yet, so I'll put those up later.

London
Here are pictures from Day One. I'll put them up a day at a time, because there are a lot. (also, someday I will get the pictures from le Chateau d'Angers up...promise)

Here's Big Ben...not as big as I thought it would be!

Buckingham Palace, also not as big as I'd imagined.

If you've read or seen Harry Potter, this should be familiar. This is at the King's Cross train station.

This is Camden. It's basically entirely punk rock shops. I loved it.

Here's the House of Commons overlooking the River Thames at sunset...sweet.

Here's the biggest ferris wheel in the world! (The London Eye...and the technical term is "the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel"...whatever that means)

So here's a sign that's in the cantilevered observation wheel. Do not lean against doors. Yeah, you see those lights outside? That's the top of a skyscraper. I don't think I'll be trying to exit this pod anytime soon, thanks.

The House of Commons from the cantilevered observation wheel (I love this term). We were up pretty high.

And here's me in front of Big Ben at the end of our first day.

If you made it through all that, kudos. The next one will be easier to digest, promise.

Germany

So I made it to Germany in one piece.  Let's just talk briefly about how lucky I've been getting at the airports.  Example one:  flying from Nantes (France) to London, I had stupidly packed all of my shower products (all in containers of more than 100mL, none of which will fit in a one-liter bag).  So I figured, I'll try and go through security.  If they pull me out of the line and yell at me for my shampoo, I'll just throw it away.  Waste of money, but no big deal.  My bags (purse and duffel bag) go through the machine.  My heart races.  The guy in charge of the x-ray machine asks me "ma'am, do you mind if I go through your...purse?"  I was like ...seriously?  YES SIR PLEASE GO THROUGH MY PURSE.  My purse had nothing of interest in it!  Meanwhile, my three giant bottles of shower products get on the airplane with me and go to London.  Example two:  this morning, as I was leaving London Stansted to go to Dusseldorf (Germany) I was confronted with the same issue.  However, the security at Stansted was very stern about liquids (ie have all of your liquids in a bag and out of your luggage so we can inspect them).  No chance I'll be getting my shampoo through there.  So after much deliberation, I decided it would be cheaper to spend the 16 British pounds to check my bag than to throw away my shampoo and buy some more.  So I approach the desk and ask to check a bag.  "How much does it cost?" I inquire.  The woman responds "Well normally it would be 16 pounds, but our system is down today so I'll just take your bag."  !!!!!!!!!!!  I didn't have to pay to check my bag!  What luck!

Anyway, how was my first day in Germany?  Good question.  The airport shuttle picked us up from our hostel and 3:15AM...our flight took off at 7:25AM...arrived at 9:35AM.  We hopped on a bus for an hour to get to the train station to be on the train for an hour or so...and then Didem (my sorority sister) and Andrew (her boyfriend and a friend of mine) met us at the train station at 12:30PM.  We ate lunch, and then went back to Didem's house with the plan of dropping off our stuff and going sight-seeing all day.  Not so much.  I sat down on the couch around 3PM....and woke up to "Hey guys it's dinner time, wake up."  Sooo I did nothing today!  Which is fine.  I feel good.  Hopefully things will start happening tomorrow.