Late Night Incoherence.

Hi! I apologize for being so incredibly absent for the last week. I was uber behind in my Resistance class all week, so I spent most of my free time working on finishing L'Armée des Ombres. Well...that's what I told myself I was doing. Somehow, the darn book is still not finished. I guess that's a job for another day.

Regardless, my Resistance class should not prevent me from updating you all on my life, so I apologize. I also apologize for the potential incoherence of this blog, as I am tired beyond functioning level. So if I don't make sense...sorry.

I am going to break this up into sections to better aid my wandering mind.

1: School.
School is going alright, I suppose. We are currently having classes in another building due to the strike and other factors, and I already miss the tiny campus of L'Université d'Avignon. The building we have classes in right now makes me feel like I'm in high school...there is no campus, few rooms, and bad heating. Throw in some squeaky chairs and it's practically DHS! As for the actual course work...it's still not too bad. We had a grammar test on Tuesday, I had a paper to write for resistance, and I had to give an oral presentation this week, but the fact that I don't have tutorial this quarter kind of makes it cake. Removing a weekly five page analytical essay from my work load my makes life infinitely better.

2: Home.
I don't know where Isabelle is. She kind of forgot to tell us. Oh well, Jean-Bernard, her ex-husband is here instead. He is completely adorable, and extremely nice to us all. He's not the best cook, but I can deal with canned ravioli for a week. In fact, I never thought I'd miss canned ravioli as much as I do! When I tasted it, it immediately made me think of the really terrible food I used to attempt to make in my microwave at OU. Oh...reminiscence.


(Sidenote: Jonathan, Natsu, Shawna, and I eat SO MUCH YOGURT! This is our accumulation of yogurt containers in like...a week and a half. We're yogurt champs.)

3: The French.
I have really been enjoying getting to know our new French friends! Shawna and I have been hanging out a lot with Nicolas, Levy, Adrien, and friends, and it's nice to have someone other than our OU friends to see. Don't get me wrong, I love the OU group, but seeing the same 20 faces every day gets old. Our Frenchies have given us the opportunity to see a few cool places that are actually outside of walking distance, like...(heaven forbid) a commercial movie theater! And a Nissan car dealer! Oh, the comforts of home. It's good to get out every once in a while. I mean, there's only so much to do within the ramparts of Avignon. Plus, Shawna and I are convinced that we learn more French with our Frenchies than we do in class. I'm considering doing like my mama did while she was living in Italy, and making a French slang/cuss word dictionary. There are just somethings that a professor won't say in class...

4: Movies.
Point number three reminded me to talk about something interesting I've found in France...films! Thursday night, Shawna and I went with Nicolas, Levy, and Adrien to see Fast and Furious 4. Personally, I think they should have stopped making the F&F movies after the first one, but whatever. It wasn't my top pick, but I'm actually strangely glad that I saw it. It was so weird to see a picture of the United States while in France. It was a really strange perspective. Certain things that i never would have given a second thought to suddenly seemed important and quite blatant. You all know how the Fast and Furious movies are; they're filled with sex, drugs, alcohol, illegal activities, macho guys, skinny girls, and general shenanigans. But I have to wonder...what do the French think of the United States? They see American films portraying the United States like Fast and Furious does, and I wonder if they actually think the country is that way. After seeing Fast and Furious, we watched The Butterfly Effect at Adrien's house. There is a part where Ashton Kutcher is a fraternity boy, and his girlfriend is a sorority girl. The movie briefly portrays a very stereotypical Greek campus - polo clad boys wandering around with bikini clad girls on their arms, expensive cars, expansive and green campuses, rampant drinking, and again, general shenanigans. Nicolas leaned over and asked "is your university like this?" Greek life doesn't really exist in France, so it was really hard to try to explain in broken French what exactly was going on. I assured Nicolas that our university was certainly NOT like the scene in The Butterfly Effect (except for sometimes on OU's South Beach on a nice day...but that's beside the point.) On a more positive note, I saw a fantastic French film tonight in an independent theater in Avignon: Coco Avant Chanel. When it comes out in the United States in like six months in independent theaters, I advice you all to see it. It was a really beautiful film about the life of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, the creator of the Chanel line of high fashion. Kind of sad, but very well done. Plus, Audrey Tautou (the actress who played in the well-known French film "Amélie"), was the lead, and she is quite stellar.

5: Gôuters.
Gouters (pronounced goo-ters) get their own special section. Gouters are not really pronounced like goo-ters. In fact, they're pronounced gooh-tay. They're a little French cookie sandwich with chocolate cream in between the two cookies, and they're pretty much divine. I've been gouter binging. It's kind of bad. But they're soooo yummy.

6: Wednesday.
We don't generally have class on Wednesday, but this week we had an Atelier Cuisine (cooking workshop) with one of the assistants, Katy. The group went to Les Halles (an indoor market) to buy food for and prepare our own little picnic. I was in the group that made ratatouille, and I spent most of my time chopping onions and peppers to put in the vegetable dish. Another group made pork (the first pork I've eaten in like...two months), and a third group made very delicious apple pie. We took our picnic to the Theatre des Halles, which was a gorgeous location. There, we ate our little meal, passed around a baguette, and manged on some gouters (haha, Frenglish), played on a teeter-totter that we found.


(Meghan contemplates lettuce.)


(Bread rocks my socks.)


(Erin and her ratatouille.)


(This is why I love spring so darn much!)

After lunch, Jenny, Shawna, and I climbed up to the Palais des Papes where we found a deserted lawn on the side of the hill leading down to the river. We took advantage of the beautiful day and stretched out in the sun.


(Take off your shoes, relax for a while.)


(A beautiful location on a beautiful day.)

7: La Mistral.
I might as well use my least favorite number to describe my least favorite thing of this week: the wind. The Mistral is being evil right now, and it makes the 20-30 minute walk to school even more miserable. Really...I've never seen wind this strong and persistent. It's not even bringing in any fronts or weather...it's just blowing! Sheesh. I can hear it now outside my window.

8: New shoes.
I bought new shoes today from H&M. That is all. I

Well, I can't think anymore. I have to get up early tomorrow for another excursion with the group (we're going to Bories, Gourdes, and Rousillon - three little towns near Avignon). I need sleep so badly.

I'll write soon about the excursion tomorrow!

Bonne nuit tout le monde.