Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Long days!

Bonjour mes amis! I am going to update you on my day yesterday and a little on this morning :). I hope everything is going well in Moorhead. I've had people tell me they read my blog but then they don't update me on what they are up to and I WANT TO KNOW! So just fill me in on your life because I would love to hear about it.

Okay so yesterday was an eventful day! Hallie and I woke up at the same time and ate breakfast. At this house..our house I should say, we eat breakfast whenever we want but then we eat dinner as a family. After every meal we must wash our dishes. In the morning of course, we do our own dishes since we eat at separate times but after dinner we're like a little team. One person washes, one rinses, several dry and several others set the table for breakfast and the others put the extra dishes away. It's an interesting system but I like it. There are 12 of us living here. 7 Concordia students; Hallie, Joel, Mamie, Sierra, Aaron, Grant and myself. Then our host parents and little brother which I have already introduced; Jacqueline (host mom), Xavier (host dad) and Mathias (host brother) (also the love of my life. jk i don't love him like that, but he's adorable!!!). Then the other two are helpers around the house...I think. I'm not really sure but their names are Fabiola and Lucé. Fabiola is Jacqueline's niece and Lucé is a girl from Canada but she was born in Mexico. COMME MOI!! (like myself) So there are a lot of us here but it will be a ton of fun!

Anyway, back to yesterday's story, during breakfast Joel had walked in and ate with us. We then made a plan to go to the store to by shampoo, conditioner, make-up remover, etc. Joel had already gotten dressed before going down to breakfast so he just waited patiently for us girls to finish getting ready. We then took our little maps and went "downtown" or what kind of looks like a "downtown". There are 250,000 people in this city so there are multiple "downtowns". lol So we look on the map and see a symbol for a market. When we got to the "market" we realized it was an open-air market (that wasn't even open) not a store. It was freezing and my ears had once again gotten close to falling off so we headed home. Once we got back we asked Xavier where the nearest store was at and headed that way. When we got to the store it was CLOSED. UGH so frustrating. We bought "Brioches Chocolats" and took a stroll down that downtown looking street. Un brioche chocolat is kind of like a muffin but not really. It's more flaky than fluffy but it has tiny chocolate chips in it. It isn't nearly as sweet as a muffin either. It's sort of difficult to describe. GOOGLE IT ;). Now that you are done googling it, i'll get back to my story :D.

While we were strolling down the street I saw an OLD FRIEND, GUESS WHO??? THE AMERICAN GIRL FROM THE TRAIN. That's right the rude little porno reading blonde. I almost peed my pants with excitement that I could show Hallie and Joel who she was. Then we saw a store called Deux Euros "2 Euros" sort of like a dollar store but a bit more expensive because 2€=approx $3. Everything here is more expensive but what do you do? feel free to donate to the poor. lol just kidding. At the store I bought my shampoo, bobby pins, conditioner, body wash, other hair clips, make-up remover, post-its. It was quite a bit but I needed it! Again, the little blonde entered the store. IF i see here again, I will take a picture so that you guys have the privilege of meeting her. Ok, I'm done being mean about her.

We headed home after we all bought what we needed and took naps. Longer than expected because then at bedtime I couldn't fall asleep for the life of me. We went to bed at 1am-ish and I didn't fall asleep until like 3am. It was horrible! *Another thing to note is that when it is Midnight here it is 5pm for you Minnesotans. Therefore, if you would EVER like to speak to me while I am in France, please do so at this time.* I love sounding dramatic. I know you all have lives, and choir but hopefully we can find a time to chat on FB or Skype or something. I miss you all and like I said, I want to hear about your adventures in Moorhead. :)

Back to yesterday.. After our "nap" we headed downstairs for dinner. We had like an hour until we actually ate so we sat in the living room and talked with Fabiola and Jacqueline and Mathias. We watched "Charmed" for a little bit but then Mathias wanted to watc the Simpsons. I helped him finish his Spiderman puzzle I had given him and then we found Waldo. Waldo's name in French is Charlie...very weird. Mathias cheated though because he has the book memorized. I would flip the page and he would yell out "Il est là!!" (There he is!) I beat him a few times though. ;)

When we were done with the puzzle and finding "charlie" it was time for dinner. It was a delicious casserole type dish that had chicken, carrots, green beans, rice and I think peas or something. For dessert we had chocolate cake that Xavier had made. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Unfortunately, Mathias didn't get any because he wouldn't finish his dinner. I think he gets shy around us at dinner or he likes to show off in front of us because he doesn't eat all of his food and he talks back to his parents. It's hard not to laugh because his voice is so darn adorable but obviously it's not funny so I can't laugh. His parents tried explaining to him that there are children in the world without food and that they would die to have a bite of his dinner. I think this is what my mom used on me as a child and why I don't waste food. *RACHEL, TAYLOR, MICAELA & ANNIE! You girls better be eating the food I left in the apt. Don't forget the stuff in the freezer (ham, crab, shrimp, etc)*

Anyway, after dinner we came back up to our rooms and tried talking to you guys but you weren't online because it's so darn early there. :( Now today's story!

Wednesday:

Hallie and I woke up at 9am and started getting ready for breakfast when we heard a knock at the door. GRANT AND MAMIE, I exclaimed. We ran down the stairs as quietly as possible and answered the door. There were Grant and Mamie :). Jacqueline came down and showed them to their rooms and then we all ate breakfast together. And of course, did dishes as a family. After breakfast, I got ready to go out and about and everyone else was already dressed so they just freshened up, I suppose you could say. We went on a small tour of Tours ;) with Jacqueline. It was about 2 hours of walking around Tours showing us the cathedral, shopping center, city hall, the river..pretty much everything we need to know. The city is split into three parts by two rivers. The Cher river and Loire river. Throughout the tour today we saw three carousels, a ferris wheel and some other sort of fairground ride. This city is beautiful and is full of old architecture which I could stare at for days. We went down la Rue Nationale which is where the shopping center is. It is full of stores but everything is very modern because it had all been destroyed during WWII. Of course there is no way I could find it on my own yet but I will get used to it(I'm not as gifted as Hallie is when it comes to finding my way around). It's all fairly simple once you learn the names of the streets.

A few of us bought some more things that we needed and then headed back home. When we arrived I was completely exhausted and to no one's surprise, my back KILLED :(. C'est la vie. Mathias came into our room for a little bit to show us the gift Mamie had gotten him. It's a small hamster that makes a ton of different noises. Mathias speaks French, Spanish and is learning English. I spoke to him in Spanish but he was too shy to respond. He would just shake/nod his head yes and no with a big smile. What a cutie. Well I have been typing for quite a long time and now I have to write all of this in my journal :).

I just read Hallie's blog and need to add that our rooms have names. Hallie and I are in "Les Marguerites", Grant and Aaron are in "Les Pigeonniers", Mamie and Sierra are in "La Petite Marie" and I'm not sure what the name for Joel's room is. I just thought it was cute and something to share with you all :). Each room also has a sac where we put our dirty laundry and they each have the names of our rooms on it. ok peace out!

i.l.y.a! Have a great day, since yours is just starting.

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