Tuesday, May 22, 2012

"Let's get down to business to defeat the Huns!"





Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?
You're the saddest bunch I've ever met
But you can bet before we're through
Mister, I'll make a man out of you

Tranquil as a forest
But on fire within
Once you find your center
You are sure to win
You're a spineless, pale pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue
Somehow I'll make a man out of you

I'm never gonna catch my breath
Say goodbye to those who knew me
Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym
This guy's got 'em scared to death
Hope he doesn't see right through me
Now I really wish that I knew how to swim

Be a man
We must be swift as the coursing river
Be a man
With all the force of a great typhoon
Be a man
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

Time is racing toward us till the Huns arrive
Heed my every order and you might survive
You're unsuited for the rage of war
So pack up, go home you're through
How could I make a man out of you?

Be a man
We must be swift as the coursing river
Be a man
With all the force of a great typhoon
Be a man
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

My theme song for the rest of this week haha!  It's time to get down to business.  Studied all week, which is my excuse for no blog posts - haven't really done much except sat around and studied chemistry.  And tomorrow's the day...hopefully I have studied hard enough! 

Then, Thursday and Friday are proficiency exams and Saturday I fly home!  So soon!  :O  Which means...this is probably my last, or second to last (depending on how late I get into Paris Friday night) post from France!!  

Anyways...back to studying!  A real blog post that's not entirely song lyrics will come after the exams, either from Paris or from my wonderful bed in the USA =)  But seriously, that song is way too epic to simply quote one line as a title haha.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

"Shh. I'll tell you when you're older."



The search was tough, but I persevered - I finally found a good mother in Disney!!! So, a few days late, here's my Happy Mother's Day post!!!  I tried to do it on Sunday but couldn't think of a Disney mother who wasn't either dead or evil :)  And isn't that one of a mom's favorite lines?  How many times have you heard that line from your mother or overheard other mothers saying it to their children?

Not much has been going on here...it's exam time.  I've been studying.  A lot.  Chemistry in French is exactly as hard as it sounds, especially when half of the exam is going to be oral!!  I've been studying a lot.  Only one week left, and then it will all be over...except for my two proficiency exams, but those can be worried about later ;)

My first two exposes went well, I think (I hope haha).  The first one was pretty good - I actually got my French professor, Mme. Pago, on my jury with another nice woman who smiled a lot.  So that helped my nerves at least a little bit, since I already am aware of the lightning-speed with which Mme. Pago talks and therefore wasn't flabbergasted when she started rapid-firing questions at me :)  I think at one point, when she asked me about using Twitter and Facebook, she thought I didn't understand the question, but anyone who is my friend or follower can attest that I pretty much never use either account haha.  Imagine that, a young person who isn't addicted to social media!!  Although now that it's finals time, I seem to be more addicted than I was last month...haha funny how that always seems to happen.

My second expose was a bit less promising...I had these two professors I'd never seen before.  I had no idea what I was supposed to do or how long I was supposed to talk, so I kind of just started rambling.  When I finished, the guy professor just looked at me and said "C'est tout?"  You're finished?  Whoops...but fortunately they laughed when I told them I had been preparing for C1 and therefore didn't know the B2 requirements for how long I was supposed to talk.  They just asked me random questions to fill the time.  I had to defend the fact that I'm an American and yes, I do in fact cook (occasionally...usually my wonderful roomie cooks for me or my family when I'm at home...but I'm learning!!).  I also declared my undying love for French pastries and bakeries....the professors laughed at me.  But hey, at least I'm not fat yet!!  10 more days, how much weight can I gain as I attempt to eat a lifetime's worth of pastries before my plane takes off?  Challenge accepted, my dear French professors.  Challenge accepted =)

So notice my photo to accompany today's quote is taken in snow.  Fitting, since it was a warm and sunny FORTY DEGREES this morning!! Seriously, France, it's May.  Get with the program and warm up already!!!  You didn't hear me complaining when it was sixty last week!!!  I'm a Southern girl...it should be getting close to 100 right about now and I should be swimming in an outdoor pool (without the heater, of course) in order to cool off.

But now that I complained, I feel guilty.  I'm leaving in 10 days!  I can't believe it's almost over!  While I'll be glad to get back home to my amazing bed, dog, family, and friends (don't read anything into the order I typed that.....actually do read something into it, it's a pretty accurate listing of my priorities) I will be sad that this semester of a lifetime has come to an end.  I've met some pretty incredible people over here and hope to keep in touch with them when we all scatter to various countries across the globe...and I majorly suck at keeping in touch with people, so this will be a challenge.  After all, I just admitted that I suck at using social media, and pretty much every single one of my friends back home can attest to this fact.  =)

Tomorrow will be the day I cave in and buy the fried, greasy, chocolate-covered deliciousnesses that are churros.  It will be a good day =)

Also...the quote that almost won for today's post, but ended up losing because it's not really mother-y, it's just an awesome quote in my opinion and is spoken by a mom:

"Girls, come on.  Leave the saving of the world to men?  I don't think so."



Yeah!  You go Elastigirl/Helen/Mom - making sandwiches and saving the world, all in a day's work =)



Sunday, May 6, 2012

"A hundred thousand things to see."



Wow, so much traveling!  First of all, sorry for the lack of posts...I feel like I posted about both the Netherlands and my visit to the Holka household, but evidence shows otherwise since I can't find the posts even saved on my computer :)  Whoops!

So I'll start with my visit with the wonderful Holka family.  It was great to spend a relaxing weekend just outside of Paris right before my birthday with the entire family.  Mme. Holka cooked amazing food, as always, which was a real treat!  And Victoria baked me a cake for my birthday!  Overall it was a fantastic weekend :)

The next weekend, I went to visit my awesome friend Debby in the Netherlands!!  I stayed with her in Rotterdam and took a day trip to Amsterdam and Kinderdijk (the town with all the windmills).  I officially drank my first beer, which I did not enjoy at all haha, but still went to the Heineken factory where I was able to draft (and drink) my own beer =)  I even kept the glass as a souvenir!  It will definitely be making the trip back to the states with me :)  I also visited the Van Gogh museum - yeah, he's Dutch, not French (so many people have told me Van Gogh's French....shame shame...I'm not even an art person and I know that haha).  Took a contraband photo of his sunflower painting ;)  But don't worry, no artwork was harmed in my photo-taking process!  Sadly, the line to the Anne Frank house was too long, so I didn't get to visit that, but I still enjoyed Amsterdam a lot =)

Rotterdam was also a lot of fun: known for it's cube houses (I took a picture, if you don't know what I'm talking about, which hopefully will be on Facebook eventually, if I ever conquer my laziness and procrastination haha).  We walked through the market in the morning, which was fantastic!  I love all the open markets over here...I will be missing that a lot when I come back.  Then, in the afternoon, we went on a little boat cruise to Kinderdijk where we saw all of the windmills.  It was beautiful :)

As for Dutch food, well any diet I had before going was sufficiently ruined :)  Kroquets, stroopwafels, fries, poffertjes....it was all awesome :)  Except for the raw herring, which I did try, much to my displeasure haha.  And, while getting addicted to all of the amazing fried food, I also got addicted to The Hunger Games!!!  Debby had the books, and we had plenty of time on the trains to/from Amsterdam and on the boat to/from Kinderdijk to get me sufficiently hooked =)  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by some stroke of luck the movie is playing on the plane back, despite secretly knowing it's wayyy too soon for that to happen haha.

Then, it was my last week of classes, where I passed most of my classes and have my fingers crossed that I didn't fail the other 2 ;)  Seriously though, when your entire grade rests on one exam, and that exam proves to be deathly hard, passing is a serious concern!  I think I find out this coming week...which is also the week in which I have my first proficiency exam: Oral Exam Number 1.  Not excited.  Actually terrified out of my mind and nervous as a fish who is about to take a test on how long he can breathe out of water.  And I thought my IB Expose was hard...this one lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes - 1 hour of reading the document and preparing and 30 minutes of making up crap in front of a panel of hopefully only 2 professors.  :O

Now onto more traveling, because there is no study in study abroad haha!  For my Spring Break, which was these past 2 weeks, I traveled all around France with my mother.  First stop was Paris, where we saw the big stuff like the Eiffel Tower and all that jazz.  Then we went to Dijon, where we had mustard and the amazing wonder that is kir :)  We also had a pizza with the most amazing topping ever, especially considering we're in France: CHILI!!!! Yes, real green chili on our pizza!!!!  =)  Next was a day trip to Versailles, since my mom had never been to a castle before.  Might as well go to the big one, right?? ;)  It was very nice, especially since I got in for free as a French student, until it started pouring horizontally and we got soaked!  We ran back to the hotel to change, because that night we had dinner at the Holka family's house (so lucky - I got to see them twice so far, and I get to spend one more night with them before I leave!!).  We had fantastic champagne, followed by escargots from Bourgogne (which were also fantastic), duck (ok, everything was fantastic), and chocolate cake, all accompanied with a wonderful wine.  I was stuffed by the time I left!

We also took a day trip to Belgium - Brugges, to be exact.  Of course, I loaded up on Belgian chocolate while there, all of which is gone now :P  Surprisingly, I only just ate the last piece!  That's a long run for chocolate around me haha.  While in Brugges, we went to a brewery to try some Belgian beer (not very pleasant haha, but at least we tried) and just kind of wandered the streets.  I'm pretty sure we went to a museum or church or something too, but I honestly can't remember which one haha.  I also got to eat a Belgian waffle =)  Yes, my trip was centered around food, not historical monuments.  Sorry, but I'm a chemist, not a historian or artist ;)  And I love food!

Anyways, after that little stay in Paris, we headed down to Avignon, which was a quaint little town in Provence.  We toured Avignon the first day, and the second day we headed to Arles for a little day trip.  Both areas were Roman-influenced - even got to see some pretty cool Roman-style ruins (since I never actually made it to Rome when in Italy...haha).

And now for the best part of the trip...THE FRENCH RIVIERA!!!  It was so beautiful, and it was actually warm!  For once in my semester, I got to take my coat off and enjoy the sun =)  I even got sunburned, and not from sun reflecting off of snow!!  (Which, coincidentally, I think it snowed in Paris after we left...yes, it is still that cold over here)  Nice was nice ;)  However Monaco was definitely my favorite!  We toured the Prince's Palace, and I decided that he needs a son so I can marry him and become a princess =)  And of course, what's a trip to Monaco without a trip to the casino??  Monte Carlo woohoo, where I'm actually old enough to enter and play (if I wanted to haha)!!  I found my new car in front of the casino - I tried to convince my mom to let me play a few rounds inside so I could actually afford my new car, but I decided simply marrying the owner would work, too, especially if this thing with the prince's son doesn't work out haha =)  (Trusting everyone can sense the sarcasm here...I'm not this shallow in relationships haha)

After Nice was Barcelona, Spain =)  I attempted to try the local cuisine - tapas and paella - but apparently I'm highly allergic to paella!!  So that back-fired haha.  Luckily, I'm not allergic to Sangria :)  We ended up spending Barcelona relaxing, since we were there on May Day, a European holiday of protests haha.  My mom and I saw a protest, and my mom turns to me and says "Look, there's a parade down the street!"  I just looked at her, shook my head, and told her she thinks like an American...because it was indeed a protest.  We did get to see Park Guell, the Catedral (the h is left out on purpose - it's a famous cathedral right off of La Rambla), and of course walked the famous Las Ramblas.  I even bought a scarf at the market there because the merchant was nice and gave me a discount (I'm pretty sure all his "playing with the scarf" was his way of flirting with me...which worked out for me since I got the scarf cheaper than the woman in front of me!!).  We also bought really fresh fruit at the food market for breakfasts and dinners in my attempt to stay away from the typical Spanish foods that nearly killed me.  And, of course, CHURROS AND CHOCOLATE!!!  Although I must say, French and Belgian chocolate is better in my opinion (and Swiss...but we didn't actually go there haha).  On the last day, due to crappy weather, we decided to just go to the aquarium (it's the largest in Europe) instead of climbing the mountain, afraid it would rain.  It was a very nice aquarium =)

Traveling day sucked, but isn't that always the case haha.  Plane was about an hour late, they  opened my luggage so all my stuff was kind of everywhere and then dropped it somewhere in something (it was covered in dirty white powder), train was half an hour late.....but the bus was on time!  Haha :)

Overall it was quite a successful vacation!  And now I'm back in Limoges, with just under 3 weeks left before I come home.  Time to study my butt off for my terrifying exams - 2 oral proficiency exams, 2 written proficiency exams, 1 written stereochemistry exam, and, worst of all, 1 oral stereochemistry exam.  Yep, that's right, me making up chemistry in French as half of my grade.  Uh oh...


Thursday, March 29, 2012

"Hot snot! We are back in business!"


Ok, back to blogging!  Haha sorry for the long pause between blogs...it's like all my professors realized simultaneously that there are only 3 weeks of school left and they haven't assigned any grades yet.  So I have about a million exams next week (they were supposed to be this week, hence the gap between posts, but apparently in French this week actually translates to next week).  I have to say, I'm so sick of this French school crap.  When class is on the schedule from 9:00-11:00 and I show up at 9:00, I expect class to be from 9:00-11:00, not 10:15-12:00!!!!  Ridiculous.  No more, France.  No more.

I did actually have a test already.  However, this test was in the one class where the professor didn't actually tell us there would be a test.  And, she didn't teach us ANYTHING that was on the test.  I'm pretty sure I would've failed if it had been in English (it was a grammar test by the way).  As it was, I got 11/20...epic fail.  And the professor's all up at the front of the class "Oh don't worry about it, there will be more grades, blah blah blah..." WHAT DO YOU MEAN DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT??!?!?!?!?!  I'VE NEVER MADE GRADES THIS LOW EVER!!!  I don't want to take summer school because I failed a French grammar class that I was never taught!!!!

As for summer...summer school's actually looking like my best option haha.  I've been rejected from all REU's so far :(  I did deduce that I was high up on the waiting list for Johns Hopkins though, because it took them forever to send my rejection, which probably means they were waiting to see if those accepted could actually come.  Or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself to make myself feel better about 10 rejections in a month haha =)  There's always next year...

On the bright side, I'm packed and about to leave for Paris!!!  =)  I get to visit the wonderful Holka family this weekend.  A lovely way to spend my pre-birthday weekend in my opinion.  I am going to introduce them to the wonders of Reese's peanut butter cups =)

Speaking of introducing American stuff to Europeans....I got to introduce the concepts of guacamole and fajitas to a bunch of Europeans and Asians haha.  They had no clue what they were or how to eat them, but they loved them =)  It was a very nice dinner, lots of fun!  I'm going to miss this when I have to go back...

And for those of you wondering how I procured Reese's in France (because if you know me, you know that if I had brought any Reese's when I first moved out here, they'd be long gone by now haha), I got a lovely care package for my birthday from my mom =)  A movie, lots of Reese's (seriously, a ton of Reese's haha), and a few birthday cards from all the family!  Apparently my mom couldn't decide which Reese's to buy me - pieces, normal, or bite sized - so she bought one of each =)  Epic win.  And I'm super excited to watch Under the Tuscan Sun...because I was just under the Tuscan sun a month ago!! =)  Oh I miss Italy....Olive Garden will never be enough for me.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

"There may be something there that wasn't there before."

There may be something there that wasn't there before...like a new blog post!  Haha sorry for going so long without writing :)  I do have some pretty good excuses: first, my internet went out for three days, then I got pretty sick (no worries, everything's fine now though), then I had to finally fill out my forms for my US university, then I had to figure out what to enroll in for next semester, oh right and I had a test that ended up being cancelled but I studied for it anyways.  Last but not least, my computer broke.  But now, everything's all good, except the test which will now be next week haha.  And speaking of tests...my "Language" professor decided to give us a pop-test yesterday.  Yep, we've had absolutely no grades at all this semester and out of the blue she springs an exam on us over stuff we've NEVER seen or done before.  I just laughed - I knew I was destined to fail.  I even went up to her after the class ended and said "I didn't understand this part of the test, what can I do to answer it?  I've left it blank for now."  She replied "Don't worry about it!"  WHAT???  Seriously, that's our only grade so far, and there are only 5 classes left.  Sometimes I miss good old US crazy difficulty, because at least I know what's coming haha.  

I had a lovely America night last Friday =)  I cooked fajitas (yes, I managed to find Mexican food here in France!) for myself, my American friend, and my French friend who studied abroad in America and thus is well-acquainted with Mexican food (or at least American Mexican food haha).  Even though he studied at OSU, I still cooked for him ;)  He brought chocolate, so it ended up being ok haha.  I can't hold it against him for studying there, how was he supposed to know that he picked the bad school in Oklahoma???  No offense to any Cowboys reading this, of course...just remember that OU's always better ;)  After dinner we went out to a bar and had a nice time drinking with a bunch of his friends, which meant I got to practice my French while under a little bit of the influence haha.  Granted, I only had 1 glass of wine, so I wasn't really impaired, but understanding everyone else in a loud bar with music blaring is quite a challenge.  I felt like a beast every time I responded without asking "Repeat, please?" or contributed to the conversation =)  Overall, I'd say it was a successful night out!

Today's Pi Day in America!  I have a nerdy confession to admit: this morning I became slightly depressed when I realized France will never have a Pi Day.  In France, as in most of Europe, they do the date day month year instead of month day year like Americans.  So 3/14 for Americans is 14/3 for the French.  3/14 therefore doesn't work since there is no 14th month, and 31/4 doesn't work either because April only has 30 days!  If only Leap Day was in April haha =)  I still went to the bakery to celebrate, because I'm a nerdy American!  Woohoo!

And now time to stop wasting time...I have 2 tests to study for and a 10-13 minute speech (in French of course) to prepare for next week!  Never mind the fact that the longest speech I've ever given IN ENGLISH was under 10 minutes....better start practicing haha =)  Definitely going to need a nice trip to the bakery next Thursday evening to celebrate!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

"Oh this is the night, it's a beautiful night, and we call it bella notte."


I spent the past week on the most amazing vacation of my life!  I went to Italy, starting in Venice and then going to Florence, where I took day trips to Siena and Arezzo.  It was absolutely incredible and beautiful.  I will never, ever be able to order take-out pizza or eat at Olive Garden again in my life!

First was Venice.  I had an absolutely beautiful flight on which I could see the Alps as the sun was setting right out my window.  Of course, beautiful sunset flight meant that the hour long water taxi to the hotel was spent in darkness, which is too bad because we went around the entire island and I'm sure it would have been beautiful.  For dinner, I ate an incredible pasta dish with tomato sauce and tried a glass of their house wine called Chianti.  It's delicious - I'm no wine connoisseur, so don't ask me to compare France and Italy or anything like that, but Italian wine is definitely worth trying =)  Dessert was a bit more interesting.  On the menu was a "Dessert of Venice" so of course I tried that one, despite having absolutely no idea what I'd ordered.  It ended up being a plate of cookies typical to the Venice area surrounding a glass of a sweet white wine called Fragolino.  This wine was amazing!  I tried to find it in stores everywhere after trying it, but all I could find was red, bubbly wine called Fragolino, while the wine I drank at the restaurant was white and still.  So I did some Google research: turns out this wine is illegal to sell!  You can only sell it if you hand make it, so I'm assuming that's what the restaurant owner did haha.  So much for bringing a bottle home...however, to all my American followers, the reason it's illegal is because the grape is an American grape.  So maybe you guys will have luck if you want to try it one night - I have no clue if it's sold in the states or not seeing as how I've never bought wine in the states, but if you want to try a sweet wine for dessert, I'd highly recommend it =)

Anyways, back to Venice!  Venice is the most beautiful city: no cars, just tons of bridges across the canals.  Everyone owns a boat like we own a car, and you walk just about everywhere.  It's wonderful.  Friday, I went to St, Mark's Square, of course, and toured the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's  Basilica.  Both structures were incredible.  It is always amazing to me to see the incredible detail in the buildings - even along the ceilings and floors.  No inch of the building is left undecorated.  Of course, after all this touring I was starving!  So I went to a pizzeria and ordered a calzone.  It was the most incredible thing I've ever eaten in my life (this far...haha that saying will probably reappear multiple times during this marathon of a blog entry)!  Drenched in olive oil, the calzone was nice and thick and packed with cheese, mushrooms, and meat!  It was amazing!  And of course, for dessert some chocolate gelato was necessary.  I walked down quite a ways to avoid the tourist gelato bars and found a nice place with cheaper gelato.  At the time, my little naive self thought the gelato was amazing, however there was more gelato to be tasted, and soon I would realize how much better gelato gets =)

Saturday was also spent in Venice.  I went to the Galleria dell'Accademia, which is the largest art museum in Italy, and saw "Madonna con bambino" (Madonna and Child) about 100 times haha.  But it was a very nice museum with lots of nice paintings.  I tricked the admissions lady into thinking I was a French citizen, because EU citizens got discounted tickets.  So I just walked up, showed her my French student ID and asked for a discounted ticket =)  It turned out she let me in for free with a promise to come back and pay her before leaving because she didn't have change, and I couldn't very well pull out my American credit card after claiming to be French haha (credit cards in Europe have chips instead of the magnetic strips, so it's pretty obvious when you swipe instead of insert the card into the bottom of the machine that your card isn't European).  I wonder if she would have done that if I'd "been American."  After I finished touring the museum, I stalked a few Italian people in hopes of finding a grocery store...and succeeded!  =)  Keeping the location in mind, I went back near the Galleria dell'Accademia to try a different pizzeria for lunch.  Yes, I did spend the entire week eating nothing but pizza, pasta, and gelato (fruit for breakfast though!!), so judge all you want haha.  My pants still fit, so all is good =)  This pizzeria was even better than the first!  I had a huge mushroom pizza and of course devoured the entire thing.  Then for dessert, since I was in Italy, I decided to try a cappuccino despite not really liking coffee.  It was not bad, for coffee.  Worth a try, but not something I need to order every day haha.  After lunch, I walked around the city a bit and somehow wound up back in St. Mark's Square, which means I got lost somewhere haha.  I did make it to the Rialto Bridge and bought a cannoli at a little bakery down one of the streets leading to the bridge =)  After all my wandering, I went back to the grocery store, picked up some food for a picnic, and ate alongside the Grand Canal.  It was a beautiful picnic with the sun setting in the background.  And of course, more gelato for dessert!  Today's flavor of choice was Nutella - it was very yummy!

Sadly, that was the end of Venice, so I woke up early Sunday morning and caught a train to Florence.  Florence was also breathtakingly beautiful!  Different from Venice in that people actually drive, which is horrifying.  Seriously, I almost died so many times.  Cars don't stop.  They just go and expect you to jump out of the way.  Somehow I survived my way down to yet another pizzeria to compare Florence pizza to Venice pizza =)  I ordered another calzone, which of course was amazing.  It was completely different - very thin crust instead of super doughy, but still drenched in olive oil and absolutely delicious.  I also ordered a dessert calzone that was filled with Nutella and mascarpone and stuffed myself to capacity =)  Gosh, I loved the food of Italy...all Italian restaurants in the states are ruined for me haha.  Even the "good" ones.  Anyway, once I found the little bed and breakfast and got checked in I just wandered the streets of the open market.  I'd saved my money to buy a nice leather purse in Florence (Florence is known for leather goods), which was perfect because my purse ripped on the plane!  Funny story actually, I was afraid I'd been pickpocketed in St. Mark's Square (the most pickpocketed area pretty much ever) because I grabbed my purse and stuck my finger through the side.  Luckily, all was still inside my purse, and I'm fairly certain I wasn't pickpocketed but it ripped on the plane.  Guess I'll never know for sure though haha...all I know is that my passport and all my money is safe with me =)  Anyways, back to the market of Florence, so anyone who has ever shopped with me ever knows that I'm a HORRIBLE shopper.  I take forever to make up my mind and have to look at literally every single purse before deciding and purchasing one, particularly when I set a nice budget for myself instead of the typical $20 for a Walmart purse.  So I started scoping them out while walking off my 2 lunch calzones haha.  Dinner was very minimal - I got some bread and meat and made a little sandwich.  But, of course, no day in Italy would be complete without some gelato, which of course was delicious as always!!

Monday the real touring of Florence began.  I woke up early and tried to find a tourist office to get a map of the city, but no luck haha!  The tourist office in the train station was closed for construction, and no one could tell me where another one was located!  So I stayed in the area close to the hotel, afraid of getting lost.  Luckily, the one museum I was super excited to see was close to the hotel, so of course I went there.  It was...THE GALILEO GALILEI MUSEUM!!!  It was incredible!!!  A museum dedicated to chemistry and physics!!!  And, for the non-science people out there, the museum is very well put together, with little tv screens in all the rooms that tell you a bit of the history and science behind what you're looking at.  It was pretty awesome - I'll even admit that the physics rooms were awesome haha.  It was cool to look at the machines that were used to discover all of those formulas I had to learn last semester and last year...despite the fact that multiple times before a physics exam I would claim that I absolutely hated everyone who used those original machines and thus discovered all the stuff I was being forced to learn haha =)  Of course, the chemistry rooms were the best, as they should be!  Quotes from the duke of the time about how he "recognized the importance of chemistry" - see, even he knew that chemistry is the way to go!  I highly recommend this museum to anyone who visits Florence - it's well worth the cost and is a very, very nice museum.  My friend, who is a French and Economics person (not a science nerd like me haha), said she liked it too, so even if you're not crazy for chemistry or physics it's still worth a visit :)

After the museum I walked to the Vecchio bridge, which is kind of like the Rialto bridge in Venice but much more expensive shops haha - lots of gold and jewelry.  So of course nothing but window shopping for me haha!  I did find a Disney store though and got to listen to Tangled in Italian!!  =)  Of course, by this time it had been quite some time since my last amazing Italian meal, so I found a nice little bakery and ordered a sandwich and a cannoli :)  This cannoli was more like American cannolis, but way more delicious haha.  The first cannoli I ate was small, about the length of my finger, and simple: chocolate cream inside puff pastry.  This cannoli was huge and similar to the ones you can get in American Italian restaurants...except it was even more amazing and wonderful than anything you could ever get in the states!!  I had a picnic in a square outside a museum (the museum was closed - it was the Museum of Architecture).  However, a cannoli is not gelato, and I was afraid I was going to go into gelato withdrawal, so after a nice walk around pretty much the entire historic center of Florence and another round of scoping out the market for my perfect purse, I stopped for a chocolate scoop before returning to the hotel and calling it a night :)

Last day in Florence :( First, I walked up to Piazza Michelangelo, which is on top of a huge hill.  My friend made a Rocky comparison as we were climbing up...being the pop culture genius that I am, I had no idea what she was talking about, but we took "Rocky photos" anyways haha.  The view from the top of the hill was way worth the climb!  You could see literally all of Florence!  It was beautiful.  We found an American family and asked them to take our pictures doing our school's sign (one of us held our arms up in an O and the other in a U haha).  We're hoping we get a picture on the OU Study Abroad website =)  Then, we decided to get a little crazy and practice "leaping pictures!"  We jumped off the ledges and took pictures mid-flight haha.  Now we're ready for Leap Day (which would be spent in Siena) - we can take leaping pictures!!!  Haha...good thing I wasn't traveling with my parents...they'd probably kill me for leaping off of those ledges of death - because if you look at the pictures, what you can't see is that behind me is a 50 foot drop down to a windy street of death.  But no one died, so all is good haha =)  After all of this jumping and death-defying though, I was pretty hungry haha.  So I went to this nice pasta restaurant and asked the waitress what she recommended.  Boy, does she have good taste haha!  I got a mushroom and truffle pasta (the Italians really like their truffle haha) that was to die for.  Seriously, it was amazing!  It was super rich though, so I decided I needed to walk and tour a bit before getting my daily dose of gelato haha.  I went to a sculpture museum called Bargello Museum that was very nice.  I took quite a bit of contraband photos when the guards weren't paying attention =)  Something really cool was that I found enamels made in Limoges in the museum!  Woohoo for Limoges!  Don't worry, I snuck some pictures of them haha.  It was a very nice museum.  And, it's right around the corner from the best gelato shop in Florence!!  The shop has neon lights and is impossible to miss.  I ordered a dark chocolate scoop and a "cookies" scoop...and my life was changed (or so I thought...haha Arezzo was still to come!).  It was so good, I went back after dinner for round two and got dark chocolate again with tiramisu as the second scoop.  And my clothes do still fit after all of this eating haha =)  After gelato, I finally went back to the market to purchase my purse.  After all of my looking for a black purse to replace my ripped one, I fell in love with a cream-colored purse.  And thanks to my horrible indecisiveness, the shop owner dropped the price almost 50% for me since I kept debating whether or not I wanted to buy it!  Woohoo!  Thanks to the great deal, I was able to get a wallet to match haha =)  Happy days!

Wednesday was Leap Day!!  I went to Siena, which is a medieval city with lots of nice, 45 degree hills to climb haha.  It's very beautiful, just like the entire Tuscany region.  I wandered around for a bit trying to find a map or a tourist office and found a nice big square (all cities have squares...lots of them haha) with a clock that had the date on it.  Looks like I found my "leaping pictures" background haha!  Trying to do split leaps in jeans is difficult...try it after 5 years of no gymnastics and well, it's kind of depressing to look at the picture.  I like to think that if I hadn't been wearing jeans my leap would have been a little prettier =)  Haha oh well...I tried.  I also took cool leaping pictures off the steps of the cathedral, so they have a pretty background haha.  Anyways, back to things serious people do when on vacation...I bought an all-access pass (it was pretty cheap and everything was worth seeing here) and went through the cathedral, museum, crypt, baptistery, and got to climb up to the top of the building and take pictures of the entire city!  I got super lucky - the entire trip, I had beautiful postcard weather, so my pictures came out really well!  Climbing up to get them was quite horrifying on these little narrow spiral staircases of death - I tried to make as much noise as possible so anyone at the bottom would know someone is coming down and would wait until I made it down to start climbing up haha =)  But the view was worth the horrifying climb.  Of course, all this touring made me pretty hungry...pasta time!!  I found a little local trattoria (small restaurant) with homemade pasta, homemade wine, and delicious pie.  The pasta was so good, I ordered a second dish before dessert!  Haha, maybe that's why the climb felt so claustrophobic...(lunch was in between the cathedral and the museum, and the climb was part of the museum).  This restaurant was so amazingly delicious - if anyone ever goes to Siena, seriously, you have to go to Locanda Garibaldi - I can message you the address haha, I took their business card =)

That was pretty much it for Siena - touring took the entire day and I caught a bus back to Florence where I immediately fell asleep in order to wake up early the next morning for Arezzo!  Arezzo is not often on a tourist's list of cities to visit in Italy.  I wanted to visit because OU has a program in Arezzo, so I went to visit my fellow Sooners =)  It was an incredible visit, and I can't thank them enough for taking me around the town!  Arezzo is a small, medieval town kind of like Siena, and just as beautiful.  The duomo is very nice and free, which is always a plus haha.  Then, after the Sooners finished their classes they took us to a pizzeria where I had yet another amazing pizza.  I'm now in the habit of eating an entire pizza instead of just a slice or two for a meal haha.  Not that it will matter in 3 months when I'm forced to return to the US, because Papa John's will never compare!  Anyways, after pizza they took us to their favorite coffee shop where I tried a Caramel Macchiato that was incredibly amazing!  Way better than a cappuccino, probably because you couldn't really taste the coffee haha.  And then, prepare yourselves, I ate the gelato that tops all other gelatos for the best gelato ever.  It changed my life.  I had "Cremina," which is basically heaven in ice cream form - chocolate with Nutella mixed with a white flavor that was either mild vanilla or white chocolate or something else incredibly amazingly delicious, and Hazelnut.  Oh my gosh.  Can't even put into words how delicious it was.  I savored it as we walked to the ampitheatre to see the ruins.  They were nice, but obviously they were ruins, so the entire seating area was just gone.  It was still pretty though, and you could sit on little steps leading down to the ruins and eat gelato while looking at an amazing view =)  It was very nice hanging out with fellow Sooners - their program is very different from ours!  It's literally like OU picked itself up and plopped down in the middle of Italy, as opposed to my program where I'm actually at a different university.  It's pretty cool - I've decided that I'm going to do summer in Arezzo instead of coming home haha =)  I wish....

Anyways, Friday was my last day in Italy.  I woke up early to go to Mass with my Catholic friend, which was pretty cool.  I'd never been to Mass before, so it's pretty awesome that my first Mass was in an epic duomo in Catholic Country!  After Mass, we went to the food market and met a really nice shop vendor who told us about the little bottles of wine we were looking at (yes, we were wine shopping at 8:00 in the morning haha...but hey, we had a plane to catch!  What were we supposed to do?).  He also offered us a taste of some cookies that Italians dunk in the dessert wine (could it be that we found the illusive Fragolino??).  So we bought a couple little bottles from him, and I am super excited to try the white "dessert wine liquor" in hopes that it's the Fragolino I had on the very first night =)  Other than that, Friday really sucked haha.  The flight was delayed, the airport was an absolute disaster, the flight itself was horrifying on an itty-bitty plane that I was sure was going to crash into the Alps, the train was late, which meant I missed the bus back to my dorm and had an hour walk at 10:30 at night...but I made it back safe and sound =)  Note to anyone who is inspired to visit Italy after reading this entry: NEVER fly into or out of Florence airport!!!  It's too tiny!!!  It can't handle lots of passengers, so it can only take your checked bags 30 minutes before your flight takes off, which means security gets super backed up with everyone frantically dropping off their bags and running through security to make the flight.  It's crazy haha!  Now I know why the Arezzo Sooners said they always fly from Pisa =)

Well, there you have it: one amazing week in Italy.  Now it's back to reality...sort of haha.  Back to the first level of vacation.  Seriously, it's like vacation-inception: first level of vacation is Limoges, then vacation within a vacation to Italy, then vacation within a vacation within a vacation for all the day trips to Arezzo and Siena....how deep can I go???  =)

Monday, February 20, 2012

"A great big party every night, that doesn't sound too bad!"



Woohoo, what a weekend!  Started off Friday with my lovely British friend's birthday celebration.  We started in the kitchens of the residence halls and then headed over to a club.  It was my first time clubbing, and it was pretty fun =)  And, exciting thing I tasted - mint flavored rum!  Highly recommended, particularly to mix with hot chocolate.  Of course, I only had a sip…not recommending you drink as much as everyone else did haha, otherwise your morning is going to majorly suck.  As the only sober person (all I had was a sip of wine and a sip of the rum - I know, mixing alcohols, but I only had a sip of each to taste them), it was super amusing, particularly on the walk home.  I won't embarrass anyone by actually posting what happened, but suffice to say it was quite a night that only I will remember haha =)  I think I can safely post one thing that was awesome: the other Sooner and I sang Boomer Sooner as loud as possible at about midnight in the center of Limoges right by city hall :)  School spirit woohoo!!!

Then, Saturday was yet another birthday celebration!!  My American friend turned 20, so we went to the delicious Indian restaurant where I had an amazing chocolate mousse and gorged on delicious Indian food (which I'm starting to fall in love with haha).  We then went to a bar, but I didn't drink.  I had a kir with dinner since it was cheap, and I like to remain level-headed, so that was it for me.  I went home shortly afterward, but I know some clubbing ensued after the bar.  I was tired - lame, I know haha, but I'm not a super huge party animal.  After all, Friday was the first time I've ever been clubbing.  Including in the US.  So give me a break haha :)  At least I managed to go clubbing while I was a teenager - I'm running out of time to be all rebellious and whatever else teenagers are supposed to be!  Only a little more than 1 month woohoo!

Sunday was pretty relaxing - the third American and I baked a cake to surprise the birthday American.  It was quite an adventure, and it tasted delicious!!  We sort of had an issue getting the cake out of the pan…so the top of the cake became the bottom of the cake while the bottom of the cake stayed stuck in the pan haha.  We covered the destroyed "bottom" of the cake that made it out of the pan in Nutella and then crumbled up the stuff left in the pan on top of the cake as decoration =)  Put a couple of meringues on top and tada!  Delicious chocolate cake with Nutella frosting =)  Success!!!  Culinary experiments are going quite well.  I also made a "chicken marsala" - the quotes are because I just sort of dumped mushroom soup and Merlot into a pot with chicken and crossed my fingers that it would be edible and somewhat delicious.  It was also a success =)  Happiness in the kitchen!!

And this will probably be the last, if not second to last, blog post for a while, because I'M GOING TO ITALY!!!!!!!!!!  So I'm not going to worry about finding internet and posting blogs while there…expect a super epic long blog when I get back though haha =)

Friday, February 17, 2012

"You gotta taste this! This is... oh, it's got this kind of... mmm, it's burny, it's melty... it's not really a smoky taste. It's kind of like a certain... Pshah! It's got like this " Ba-boom! Zap!" kind of taste. Dont you think? What would you call that flavor? "



I feel like such a culinary genius!  I just made an amazing toasted sandwich with my AWESOME OVEN THAT I NOW HAVE!!!  And it was delicious =)  I also bought a pan so that I can actually cook stuff other than pasta.  Super excited!!  I meant to take a picture of the sandwich…but I was hungry.  Maybe with the next one haha.

I've just about gotten all of the paperwork taken care of to be completely moved in.  All that's left to do is look into getting reimbursement since I'm an "unemployed French resident" and therefore qualify for government financial aid and change my housing insurance address.  Everyone here is very nice!  I spoke with the cleaning lady this morning as she checked the condition of my room and she was super helpful and understanding that French isn't my first language.  She was willing to make sure I understood everything and took the time to make sure I knew exactly what to do should I have any problems.  Of course, I don't really have any problems right now, because my room is brand new!  Literally, I had to take the plastic wrap off of some of the appliances.  It's great =)  The only thing that's wrong is they forgot to put the little twisty-thing on the window that makes the shades go up and down, so I can't let in any sunlight :(  Not to worry though, that will be fixed soon!

I've decided that they must have known my personality when checking the room before I got here.  They left me 5 blankets!  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm always freezing, so this is perfect =)  Of course, my new bedroom has a working heater (thank goodness!), so I don't actually need all 5, not to mention the one blanket I brought from home and the other I had to buy in my old, heat-less room.  Luckily, the blanket I bought is super nice and was super cheap, so it's not like I completely wasted my money.  After all, it gets cold in Norman too!  Except apparently not this year…US gets mild winter and Europe gets worst winter in history.  That figures.  Thanks a lot, universe!  Haha =)

"If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true."



THE DREAM THAT I WISHED CAME TRUE!!! (Well one of the dreams anyway haha)  I just moved into my new bedroom, and it is amazing =) I am sooooo happy!!!  I have my own bathroom now!  Nevermind the fact that you literally have to stand in the shower in order to go to the bathroom and when you take a shower, the entire bathroom floor gets soaked because the shower is the entire bathroom haha.  I don't care.  It's mine =)  And this bed is probably one of the coolest beds I've ever slept on.  It descends from the ceiling electrically, so during the day you put it up and at night you bring it down and climb on top of the desk in order to go to sleep.  Super high-tech!  And I have internet in my bedroom!  It took a few days to get moved-in and set-up, hence the lack of blog posts.  But now everything's amazing =)  However if you thought your bedroom is small, wherever you are, I guarantee you mine's half the size haha.  There's a reason my bed descends from the ceiling - it literally doesn't fit on the floor.  I barely fit on the floor!  I can touch both sides of my room with my hands at the same time.  On the bright side, I barely have to do any cleaning here!  =)

I may be the only American over here in this residence hall, but I'm not the only English-speaker!  Woohoo!  I met some awesome British students, so when the French is too overwhelming I have a refuge.  Maybe I'll even start to develop a British accent haha! =)  It's really exciting to me to have so many international friends - it makes me appreciate Facebook so much more, because I will be able to keep in touch with almost everyone when I go home.  And that's the last time I'm mentioning going home haha - don't want to think about that yet!  It's too wonderful here to think about home…although my French professor today certainly made me a little homesick in class.  Not exactly homesick, just really craving a delicious, rare, Texas steak.  Apparently I live in the beef region of France.  I had a steak here at the cafeteria.  Granted, it was the cafeteria, but still…that doesn't count as steak in Texas.  I almost busted out laughing in class when the professor said this region of France is known for beef.  I'll show you beef - it's a 3 hour train ride and a 10 hour plane ride away, so give me 26 hours plus time to get through customs and smuggle some meat over here =)

However, when I am missing food from home, I can always go to the market, because I found the Mexican food isle!!  Fajitas, burritos, tacos…and something interesting that they call guacamole but isn't anything like the guacamole I make other than the fact that it's green.  But it's not even the same shade of green haha.  I may try it one day though, just to see =)  If it tastes horrible, well I'll find something to do with it haha!  Maybe someone who's not from a New Mexican family will appreciate it more than me.

I did just think of something I miss about America…National Half-off Chocolate Day!  Since Valentine's Day is basically just another day here, there isn't a huge discount at the French Walmart the day after in order to sell all the candy.  It's funny, it seems like just yesterday I was walking in Walmart with my mom and laughing that they were already putting out Valentine's candy.  And suddenly I've been in France for almost 6 weeks!  It's crazy how fast time flies!  But I am definitely not taking a single minute here for granted - I am going to milk every last second out of this amazing experience and see and do absolutely everything possible =)

Monday, February 13, 2012

"To die would be an awfully big adventure."


 So explanation of this quote really quickly: I just had an amazing, huge adventure.  And I almost died.  Sort of.  So it's a fitting quote =)  Don't worry, all will be explained haha.

I haven't posted in a while because I was in Bordeaux!!  I walked to the train station at 4:15 in the morning through the snow and freezing weather, only to learn that the train was late!  But it was ok, I caught up on sleep during the train ride.  And then I arrived =)  It was very beautiful, even with the slight dusting of snow left over from the snow storm the day before I arrived.  I walked up and down the main shopping street, Rue St. Catherine, until lunch time and found an amazing pair of fur-lined boots for only 10 euro! Of course I bought them, and happily I can now feel my toes again!  After changing into my amazing new shoes, I found a nice restaurant where I ate an amazing pizza that was incredibly delicious...and huge.  It was an instance of Man vs. Food, and in this instance, man won =)  I devoured that pizza like I hadn't eaten in over a week haha.  Then, I finally got to check into the hotel and put down my backpack, only to go trek over to the Cathedral St. Andre.  It was beautiful, even under construction - they're renovating/cleaning up the cathedral.  And then, like the beast that I am, I climbed 232 tiny, spiral stairs, my shoulders touching each side of the wall the entire time, to get to the top of the bell tower and take amazing pictures of the city.  I'm the stair master =)  (Shrek reference anyone?? Haha I know, it's not Disney, otherwise that may have been today's quote)  I ate dinner at an Italian restaurant with the most amazing chocolate dessert ever!  And, since I was in Bordeaux, I decided to try a sip of hot wine to warm myself up a bit.  It was ok...not bad, but not a favorite of mine.  But the other Americans really liked it, so that was good =)

The next day, I went to St. Emilion.  And it was the adventure of adventures.  First, the train from Bordeaux to St. Emilion drops you off literally in the middle of nowhere at this abandoned shack next to a bench - that's the train station.  I had no clue which way to walk to find the city, so I just turned left towards this major road intersection.  I should have turned right, for at the intersection I saw a sign telling me that St. Emilion was in fact 2 km behind me.  So I back-tracked past the train station and hiked up to the city.  By that time, I was starving, so I found this cute little restaurant in a miniature castle-looking building and had the most amazing meal of my life.  Amazing, homemade soup, duck breast, and a "canele" - a dessert specific to the Bordeaux region.  Incredible.  Then I found the tourist office, and went to the renowned "Maison du Vin" - House of Wine.  Which is a complete waste of time in February when it isn't tourist season.  So I just went to all the wine stores and started sampling.  Don't worry, I did actually buy two bottles, I didn't just drink all their wine and then leave empty handed every time haha.  I bought a half bottle that was made in my birth year!  It was super cheap, so I couldn't resist haha.  Hopefully it tastes good!!  Well, it was made in St. Emilion...it will taste good.  I also bought a second bottle, not sold anywhere else in the world.  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY PARENTS!!!! (And dare I say happy graduation to my not-old-enough-to-drink brother too?? haha)  After that, there wasn't much else to do, because the castle was closed due to ice, so I just sat in a cafe and listened to Italian music (I know...Italian music...in France...) while drinking my hot chocolate and waiting until closer to my train departure time to walk back to the station.  And now for the near-death part: so the speed limit on the streets was around 30 km/hour, which is school zone speed, so since I was carrying two nice bottles of wine, I walked in the street to avoid the icy sidewalks.  Suddenly I heard this extreme vrooming.  I leaped out of the road onto the sidewalk just as this car comes flying down the road at maximum speed.  Slipped and just about fell on my butt :(  But I didn't die, so it was all good! =)  What an adventure.  But I made it back to Bordeaux in one piece and found a little convenience store, where I bought a baguette, cheese, and a screw-top bottle wine.  Yep, screw off wine in Bordeaux.  Why?  Didn't pack a corkscrew and didn't want to buy one =)  Hooray wine country!

So that's my adventure of Bordeaux.  It was amazing and fun and incredible, despite being frozen.  The "beautiful" vineyards were still beautiful, despite the fact that they were dead and covered in ice and snow.  It was a wonderful little weekend trip =)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

"I'm tired, and I'm hungry. And my tail's froze. And my nose is froze. And my ears are froze. And my toes are froze."



Hooray for snow!  My first two classes were cancelled because of the weather =)  And I finally found a class to replace the phantom class! Greek mythology woohoo haha.  The professor started writing in Greek on the board…and I was suddenly afraid I was in the wrong class, or that Greek was a prerequisite since Europeans, for the most part, speak at least two languages if not more.  Fortunately she then translated it into French for us, so everything was okay.  I don't want to learn a new language haha!  Especially with a new alphabet!  Although I did get kind of excited because I recognized the letters from chemistry, physics, and calculus =)  Yay nerds haha!

I feel I must make a disclaimer about my blog posts since I've gotten some comments, particularly from my parents haha: I don't drink all the time here.  And when I do drink, I definitely don't get drunk - I'm always perfectly aware of my surroundings and in complete control of my actions.  Most of the time, the alcohol references in my blog entries are jokes.  Only if I explicitly say I drank some specific drink and liked it did I actually drink that night.  I'm kidding for the rest of them.  Promise =)  I will say though, on the topic of alcohol, my friend and I really wanted to buy some Bailey's today (never mind the fact that it was 9:45 in the morning when we were shopping haha) because it came with Lindor truffles :)  Why buy the candy when you can get it for free with a bottle of alcohol??  Maybe after I move I'll buy a bottle…we'll see.  I'll already be buying alcohol that night: bribing people to help me move with wine, cheese, and baguettes!  If it's super cold, which it will be, hot tea and Bailey's might be more appropriate haha.

Speaking of hot tea, drinking hot tea is not an option here.  It's a medicinal requirement to treat the frostbite you get after walking outside to class or when waking up in the morning after a super cold night (still no heat…despite the fact that this is going to be one of the worst winters Europe has had in decades…way to go France haha).  It's the only way to stay warm in this frozen tundra.  That and lots of blankets!  Seriously, I'm drinking tea about as fast as I'm making carbon dioxide (yay chemistry! Haha).  You would think a hot shower would help…but there has to be hot water in order to take a hot shower.  And believe me, cold showers when there's snow on the ground outside and no heat inside are miserable.  I'm hoping I'll feel my fingers and toes again in March or April =)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

"You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of." "But you have heard of me."



I feel really proud - I was able to show 2 Americans a YouTube video they'd never seen before!  That never happens to me!  I'm the most pop-culturally unaware teenager that ever lived, so this was a big deal for me.  And now, they have been introduced to the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow =)  Shout out to all my awesome friends from Walker 10 last year, since that's the song we played for all the studying for finals :)

I was going to go to the market today and stock up on enough food to last until I move…and then I looked out my window and saw buckets of snow falling from the sky.  I can't see the street, because the snow is up over the curb.  In France, they don't clear the streets, you just drive through the snow.  I've been watching the cars trudge down the street, and also watching a dog having the time of its life while it's owner froze her butt off =)  Which is why I'm back in bed, in my cozy pajamas, with a nice cup of hot tea and some crackers with Nutella beside me.  I don't need food - I can live off of pasta and wine for a couple days.  After all, who needs things like juice?  It's not like I have anything to mix with it ;)  And as for breakfast food...Nutella and crackers works just fine =)  I did trek to the bakery though to get some bread, and rewarded myself with an Ă©clair!  Can't wait for dinner tonight!!

Since they don't clear the streets, they for sure don't clear, or even salt, the sidewalks.  I like my tailbone in one piece, thank you very much, so I'm not leaving my bed.  Ever.  Until April, when it's slightly warmer.  But I can build a snowman from my bedroom!  There's enough snow on my window ledge to make a mini snowman, which means I can accomplish my lifelong goal while staying warm in my pjs =)  Update: tried to  make the mini snowman…it's the wrong snow.  So no more accomplishing lifelong goal :(  I trudged outside and discovered the snow is up to my ankles!  Powdery, freezing softness inside my shoes!

To make today's blog post more interesting, let me tell you a story about why I love France.  I'm applying for financial aid, because I am considered a legal French resident until the end of May, and I've never earned a single euro in my life.  Which means I'm an unemployed French student and can apply for government aid.  Filling out the forms, I realized why it was so weird: there was no box to check if you're Latino or Hispanic.  They don't care what race you are; if you need the aid, that's all that matters.  No racial quotas to meet, no "Oh, you're Hispanic, well congratulations you just got all the money you need!  And as for you white people, well sucks for you!"  I've been filling out summer research applications all weekend, and every single one has a box to check if you're Hispanic.  Which means a perfectly-qualified, intelligent, white girl like me doesn't stand a chance.  Never mind the fact that I'm at the very top of my class and set the curve in almost every class I've ever taken.  I'm not a minority.  I'm hoping the fact that I'm a girl helps me, which in reality is kind of pathetic.  I should be hoping that my grades, teacher recommendations, and academic accomplishments help me.  They would here in France, that's for sure.  America needs to shape up in that respect and look beyond ethnicity.  There's my rant, I'm done, for now…until decisions are made about programs =) 

I really want to get accepted to Johns Hopkins!  Can you say prestige followed by greatest research experience ever??? =)  Oh, and can you also say jet-lag and exhaustion and death…since it starts 2 days after my French proficiency exam that I have to take here, which means I'm taking the test and hopping on a train as fast as possible to get to Paris and fly out the next morning, straight to the university.  No time for sleep…it's over-rated.  And no time for a quick pit stop in Houston.  Yep, guess who may or may not go home until Christmas?  I mean, I hope they'll let me fly home for a weekend to see my brother graduate, but there are a million mandatory orientation things the first week or two of the research project, so who knows.  But it's ok, it will be worth it in the long run to put on my resume and maybe get a super awesome scholarship like Goldwater, Rhodes, Marshall.  And, it will especially be worth it when I finally do make it home and my mom makes the delicious Jack Daniel's pie she always makes, which of course she will make since she will have missed me so much =)

Saturday, February 4, 2012

“The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake.”



Such a true quote.  Which is why I have decided to move to the other lake =)  Yep, big things are happening here in Limoges!  And that's why I haven't posted in a few days.  I'm leaving the run-down shantytown nightmare that is Camille Guerin and headed to La Borie on 15 February =)  Super excited to have my own bathroom and internet in my bedroom!  And maybe even heat in my bedroom! Which is a necessity, considering the temperature is absolutely freezing and there's snow and ice on the ground.   So excited!!!  Because I am just way too far out of my comfort zone here.  It would be different if this was my only choice, but it's not.  I don't have to live as if I'm in a third world country that gets lucky every so often and gets running water occasionally.  Time to move to the lake with greener seaweed =)

Anyway, so I tried to go to my phantom class again…and decided that maybe it's a sign that I should take volleyball =)  Yep, that's right, I'm going to check the sports formation.  Lord help the French, because I may be playing a sport with a ball.  Death, darkness, and destruction is about to commence!  Or, I'll play it safe and take Greek Mythology, which would actually help me for my General Education credits.  But seriously, who wants to take classes when they study abroad?  =)

After classes ended, I decided that buying a winter coat was a necessity.  Being the genius that I am, I didn't pack a winter coat despite the fact that France is the same latitude as Canada.  I ran to the mall, because this is the end of the sale period, and found an awesome red coat for 12 euros!!!  Hooray for sales!!!  I also found a few other things…like a scarf and long sleeved shirt, both of which were under 5 euros.  Excellent shopping excursion in my opinion!  And now I'm done spending money in Limoges.  Time to save up for Bordeaux, and Italy, and the Netherlands, and Clermont-Ferrand…. =)

That being said, I did actually spend about 6 more euros when I went shopping with the other international students.  However, it was to buy a blanket for my bed, which in my opinion was a necessary purchase.  As I said, I have no heat.  Even after drinking a full glass of wine, I still couldn't sleep through the night because I was freezing.  Yay for sales again - I got a super nice, soft blanket for super cheap!  Woohoo!  It helped…a little.  The cold draft can't really be fixed, no matter how many blankets I buy.  I managed to sleep for 6 straight hours though!  However, I also tried something new last night….so that may have helped too haha =)

I was introduced to a good friend named Amaretto last night.  He and Coca-Cola definitely helped me sleep, especially the way my friend poured the drinks!  And then afterwards she introduced me to rum.  I had about a shot of Coke with some rum.  Definitely didn't finish that one, because I did not want to get drunk and then hung over haha.  But the way I've  been drinking water and eating bread, I didn't feel the drinks at all.  And boy were they good!  I definitely liked the Amaretto.  Man, I can't wait until I turn 21 and can do this in the states!!  Maybe I'll just stay here for another year or so and continue  my pastry-eating alcohol-drinking experience =)

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

"There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere."








I went to translation class this morning, when there was still ice on the ground.  At home, school for sure would have been cancelled.  But I suffered and went to class, thinking "Well this can't be too bad, this class is half in English anyway!"  Wrong!  Day started off with a vocabulary quiz.  Good thing the professor said she would drop the lowest quiz grade haha, because I epically failed due to the fact that I thought "Controle" on the syllabus meant simply learning vocab that we would be using the next week in class, not memorizing for a quiz.  After the epic failure that was the vocabulary quiz, we proceeded to translate French into English…and I learned I don't really speak English either.  I felt like an idiot when the professor would come look at my translation and say something like "Well, that's good, but I'm pretty sure saying it like this is better."  I would get really excited when I got something right.  In English.  The language I've been attempting to speak for going on 20 years now.  Anyone want a humility check?  Take a translation course.  I felt (and still feel haha) soooo stupid.

Classes continued throughout the day, and at 5:00 I was so ready to leave, but of course since this is France, class was running late as usual.  Being the stellar student that I am, I started to day dream and look out the window.  And that's when I saw them.  Huge chunks of snow falling from the sky!  It was pouring snow!  Which kind of sucked, because due to the epic failure vocabulary quiz another American and I had to go into town and buy the textbook.  I must digress a little to mention the "expensive" textbook: 13,90€!  That's under $20 for a textbook!  I wish American textbooks were that cheap!  Anyway, back to the more exciting issue: the snow.  It was coming down hard - in about 2 hours we had about two centimeters on the ground (that’s almost an inch).  Being the Southern Texan that I am, I was super excited despite the fact that I couldn't feel my feet, or my hands, or my face, or really any part of my body since I don't have any snow clothing at all except a pair of (non-waterproof) gloves, scarf, and hat haha.  But I made my first snowball and threw it across campus!  =)  Tomorrow I really want to make a snowman.  I know I'll look like an idiot, because no one else here is excited at all about the snow.  Probably because they've seen it more than twice in their lives haha.  But I haven't.  Time to look like that stupid American girl again!!! =)

"Just keep swimming."




(Side note: Just so you guys know, I write blog posts about every day.  But I don't have internet in my room.  Due to the freezing, icy, snowy weather, I will just upload a bunch of days at the same time rather than run across the little courtyard each night and risk frostbite =)  After all, I'm from Houston - I barely know what snow is, let alone how to walk in it!)

Uneventful, freezing day!  I did send in applications to 2 summer research programs today, so hopefully one of those works out.  If not, I have about 10 more applications waiting to be submitted, so there's hope! 

I really miss not having a science class.  Most people are thrilled when they no longer have to suffer through chemistry.  I'm disappointed.  No labs, all grammar…not the way I roll haha.  But at least it's not super difficult, because it leaves more time for traveling and less time to worry about homework and studying =)

I learned something interesting today.  I had dinner with a bunch of international students from various countries all across Europe.  European college kids really like ping pong.  And yes, I do mean ping pong and not beer pong.  They didn't even know what beer pong was.  But we have multiple bottles of wine, so we are well-equipped to teach them the American way =)  After all, in France you can't play beer pong…wine tastes so much better!  We're too classy to play with beer ;)

Sunday, January 29, 2012

"Where is my super suit?"







I could really use a super suit right about now.  All of my clothes are wet, thanks to the wonderful dryers here at Camille GuĂ©rin, and the high for today is 3 degrees.  In Fahrenheit, that's around 35.  For the high.  As in maximum temperature.  In Houston, if it gets this cold as a low the entire city shuts down.  And it gets better: we're supposed to get heavy snow on Tuesday.  Severe weather alert.  And guess who doesn't have neither a heavy jacket nor snow shoes?  The closest things to snow shoes that I own/have here with me, my wonderful leather semi-waterproof shoes, just started to crack along the sides, which means they are no match for heavy snow.  I'm regretting not packing my super suit right now.  And regretting not picking someplace like the Caribbean to study abroad =)

But I am feeling kind of like a superhero right now.  I use my spidey senses to find the little babies baked in the king cakes!  The first king cake we ate, I bit into the little character.  Since we won a free king cake, naturally we went immediately back to the  bakery to buy it as soon as possible.  I was in charge of cutting this king cake…and I cut through the character.  Fortunately the characters are porcelain (yay Limoges!  Haha Limoges is known for porcelain) so I didn't actually break any of the characters.  I had a feeling as soon as I was handed the knife that I would cut through it…spidey senses to the rescue!

For all you Houstonians out there, here's a fun fact about French mosquitoes: they don't freeze.  Ever.  I got a mosquito bite and immediately thought "Hmm must have gotten this at home."  Until I saw the mosquito flying around in the elevator with me.  Snow, sleet, hail, freezing temperatures…nothing kills these mosquitoes!  At least they aren't the size of small birds haha =)

There's a rumor that all the Erasmus (Erasmus is European study abroad students - while technically I'm not Erasmus since I'm not European, I might as well be) students do absolutely nothing but party all semester.  I am learning that this rumor is true =)  We don't have to do anything but show up to class, which, when you only have classes 3 days a week, isn't too difficult to do.  We don't even really have to do  homework.  It's more of a suggestion (cue Pirates of the Caribbean quote about The Code being more like guidelines =)  We partied Thursday night, we're going to party Sunday night…I'm liking this whole study abroad adventure!  I could get used to this =)

Friday, January 27, 2012

"Now statistics prove, prove that you’ve one birthday. Imagine just one birthday every year. Ah, but there are 364 unbirthdays. Precisely why we’re gathered here to cheer."


Today was a day of celebration!  Happy unbirthday to us all!!  Today also tells the story of how I finally got a wine glass =)

I started my day off going to the bakery and getting a briochette.  It's a big, giant ball of delicious, fluffy bread with chocolate chips on top.  It was amazing!!  And then I promptly went back to bed for a little while, only to get bored and wander over to the internet room and become slightly productive applying for summer internships.  Which is where I discovered, I might not come ho me until Thanksgiving.  So that will be interesting.  But that's all up in the air for now, because I actually have to get one of these internships for that to happen.  Anyways, I digress…back to the story!  I finally make it back to my room to eat lunch and nothing super eventful happened until we three Americans decided to get "une galette de roi" and have a little unbirthday celebration =)  Une galette de roi is, translated literally, king cake.  However it's nothing like those American multi-colored sugar fests that the grocery stores sell at home.  It's a big, circular pie-looking cake with a delicious filling of something wonderful that, whatever it is, tastes amazing.  And somewhere inside is a baby (or some other mysterious object - we haven't found it yet haha).  When we bought the king cake, they gave us a scratch off card to see if we could win another.  AND WE DID!!!  We won another free king cake!!!  So guess what we'll be doing this weekend??  More unbirthday celebrations!!!

Yes, this is a story about how I got a wine glass…it's just a long story.  So after our amazing good fortune, we decided to go out tonight and party with the students studying English.  I had already finished the last drop of wine I had left (there really wasn't much wine left in the bottle - hardly half a glass - I didn't polish off an entire bottle of wine in one sitting) with the king cake, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't drink at all since I'm the tiniest person ever and therefore probably get drunk super easily.  Side note: I definitely drank my "glass" of wine out of a washed-out Nutella jar.  So obviously I was in desperate need of a wine glass.  Anyways, at the bar I ordered a pina colada, and since I know better than to mix my liquor, I ordered no alcohol =)  However, after that was gone, and we stayed at the bar for a while, and after I had a sip of my friend's wine, I decided it was absolutely delicious and could order just one glass.  After all, there was talk of going to a club after the bar, and I was going to need a bit more alcohol in order to be talked into going clubbing.   Especially since I've never been clubbing before, neither in the US nor here.  So I ordered a glass of Bordeaux clairet (highly recommended to anyone who likes mild red wines by the way) and sipped it slowly while talking to some of the other exchange students who came to the party.  However, it was not enough alcohol to get me to go clubbing, so I decided that as soon as I finished my glass I would walk back to the dorms with a couple other girls who were also going back.  Not wanting to guzzle my wine and thus need to be carried back home, I just grabbed my drink and walked out the door, glass of wine in hand =)  And that is why it's better to pay 3.20 for a wine glass than it is to pay 0.90: the 3.20 wine glass comes filled with deliciousness =)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

"Mother knows best!"



So I realize this quote comes from a bad guy, but seriously, it's Disney.  How am I expected to find a quote about mothers that isn't somehow related to badness?  Cinderella: evil stepmother.  Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty: no mothers (ok, Sleeping Beauty's mother exists, she just isn't significant).  Rapunzel: evil kidnapper mother (although her real mother is nice, she just doesn't have any quotes haha).  The mother figure is always bad, dead, or unimportant as far as Disney is concerned.  Walt must have really hated his mother haha.  Under the circumstances, it's the best I can do. 

On to the actual reason for this little post...I'm fairly certain my mother is going to win "Best Mother of the Year" award this semester (see, that's not badness!!).  Because I just received a care package =)  She saw the pictures of my bedroom on my Facebook page, and replied verbatim "Your walls need some help!"  So she sent me magazine cut-out pictures to decorate with and hang on my falling-apart, definitely seen better days walls =)  Cute animals, Disney (of course haha), advertisements for my car, and photos of wine.  Also, she's definitely helping plan my trips to Bordeaux and Italy, among other places, and finding super cheap hotels and hostels to stay in.  Epic win!  Huzzah!  I would share a glass of wine with her, but she's not actually here…so I'll just drink the wine in her honor for the both of us =) Hooray for mothers!!  Especially mothers who defy the Disney stereotype and aren't evil bad guys who lock their daughters away in towers!!! =)

Oh, I feel I should also mention as I'm describing the awesomeness that is my mother, the M&M blanket and pillow on my bed (as seen on the Facebook pictures) are also her contributions to my bedroom.  They made the horrible 10 hour, sleepless plane ride a little bit more bearable and make my room that much more cheery =)  Another glass of wine for another epic win!!!