Thursday is Still My Least Favorite Day

Hi world! I feel like I haven't blogged in forever, but there hasn't been much to say! I'll start with class on Thursday. I felt very confident in my morning phonetics class because I understood what was happening and even went up the board and wrote! Gasp! I just knew it would be a better day. Then, as always, my oral comprehension class happened. I know oral comprehension is my weakest point in my French, but I want to cry every single time I leave, and sometimes during, this class. It is terrible. I don't understand the 234210943754 miles an hour the news anchors speak, and I also don't understand the professor who asks the questions twice as fast! My professor last semester showed me some websites to help with my listening and stuff, so I have decided to devote at least 30 minutes a day to practicing this, and hopefully before too long I will be much better at it.

My writing class later that day were fine, but just are not very entertaining. Not that class is supposed to be entertaining, but it could be a wee bit fun, you know? It drags on and on and on and never seems like 6:30 will happen. Kristen and I decided after our day Thursday that we needed some wine. At 7:20 we made it to the Carrefour which was closing at 7:30 and we practically begged the security person to let us get some wine. In all the madness and rush of that, we forgot to get a corkscrew! Thanks to Jacques and his skills last weekend, we knew we could at least open it with a pen by pushing the cork into the bottle. Not the classiest way and definitely not the easiest or best way, but desperate times call for desperate measures. :) With 4,01 euro spent on my bottle, this is what my success (after a failed wire hanger and towel-wrapped banging on the wall) looked like:

I am a pro :)

Okay, so I know it wasn't the best way to do it, but I guarantee you one day it will come in handy again!
 

On Friday, Kristen and I went down to the train station and got our "Carte 12-25" which gives you discounts on trains throughout France. Depending on when you book, it is always at least 25% off and that can definitely add up! We wandered around hoping to find some boots for sale and came across lots of fun things:

La Maison du Fromage: A true French fromagerie. The smell was crazy strong and there was SO MUCH cheese. We, naturally, didn't know what was what, but we decided to try it anyway! Turns out, we got sheep cheese, soft and not too strong.

The "La Maison du Fromage". The smell in this place was unreal. This was just one side of it. I have never seen more cheese in my entire life.

Sheep cheese....

So we ate it. This is the before, and just imagine it all carved out for the after. It didn't have a very pleasant aftertaste and it reminded me of the smell of older people and mothballs, but after a while you no longer seemed to notice. I enjoyed trying it but I doubt I will get it again :)

As we kept walking, we ran into this "2 euro" store, and I was in heaven. I have been saying every since I got here that the French need a Dollar (well, Euro) Tree and my wish has come true! It had everything for 2 euro, or, because of the sales, 1 euro! It was amazing. I cannot wait to take my Mom and Sister!



The "It's 2 euro" store! The French version of Dollar Tree. Love,love, love it!



Friday night was pretty low key. Saturday we went in to do some more shopping and I went to H&M wihth the intention of getting shopped out. Well, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I am not a size 2, 4 or 6, so my options were slim of some of the sweater dresses I wanted. I did give in and buy a super cute blue ruffles with black belt casual dress for spring. What I love about France is that tax and everything is already included, so the price you see is the price you pay. I felt very good about getting a dress I am dying to wear for 19 euro! H&M will be graced by my presence again when I need spring clothes!

Saturday night Ebony and I decided to go try out a club and La bibliothèque for dinner. We decided to take the last bus in at 7:56 and eat slowly to be at the club at 11:30 or so. Dinner was so good! I have a pizza with ham (the French are big on ham on their pizza...) mushrooms from Paris (ooh la la!) and black olives. I also had the BEST crème brûlée of my entire life. No joke. It was heaven. We mapped out our course and left a little before 11. We obviously got lost because that's what we do, but we found some cool things along the way:

A monument for WWI Vetrans.

At Place Jourdain with Ebony. It was SO cold!

A Virgin Mobile advertisement. They have them with girls too, but I obviously prefer the "avec" boy..with Joe Jonas' body and face :) Then again, I'll take what I can get!

Turns out, the whole time we bascially went around and everywhere but where we were supposed to go. We finally found "Le Buckingham Club" and were excited. We heard the music and even though it was only midnight, we were excited to be out of our dorms! We walk in and see.....seven other people. Whoo hoo. Party, right?! The dance floor was empty and so was the bar. We decided most people probably don't come until later so we gave it an hour. After one drink we walked about to see what it had to offer (cute leopard chairs and comfortable leather seats!) and ran into Heather, the lady teaching English here to French kids. She told us about a package for a Bordeaux trip and we ended up sitting with her for a bit and chatting. Time flew by and by 1:45, the club was packed!

We finally got the urge to dance so we took over the dance floor. It is so weird to me dancing at a club in France. In the US, most guys and girls will dance together and be touching, but in France, regardless of gender, everyone dances alone, and it is a-w-k-w-a-r-d! I don't know how to dance alone and I feel so silly! I really don't care because I have fun but it is just different! Since so many people were there now, it was SO hot. About 3:15 we decided to leave and call a taxi since we live further from Centre ville. Yes, I am making progress with my French because I can call and get a taxi :) Yay me! Thirty minutes later we make it back home and I go right to sleep!

Sunday, Lelani invited me to her flat to have lunch and watch movies. Tros and Jacques had a rugby game that was away so she wanted to lounge around and I was all for it. She told me about Cape Town some and showed me the most beautiful pictures. She also told and made me some "roobios" tea, that is South African but is made from a shrub type plant that they discovered is very good for you and they make tea from the leaves of the shrubs. It was very good, especially with some of her South African cookies! She told me France doesn't have much South African stuff so she uses Amazon.com to find it! She made spaghetti bolognaise and I made a salad for us. It was very good! We had nice conversation and I got to see how and hear the story of how Tros propsed to her. So very sweet! We watched "The Social Network" and "Leap Year". I recommend both! The Social Network was so good, and Leap Year was a feel good, aww, sweet movie. It was a lot of fun and I told her we would do it everytime the rugby games are away!

I came home and Skyped with my Sissy, Jason, and even Sassi for about .2 seconds! Tomorrow should be a good day considering I like my Monday classes! Here are some more pictures I have of random things I have found:

The Laughing Cow cheese and crackers!

A Praline I split with Kristen that was good, homemade from a chocolatier!

I was SO close to buying this for my future nephew. It was 70% off so I should have! I may go back...

Well world, that is it for today! Wish me luck this week!

Lovelovelove,

Teryn