Day 177: Tours and Chinon (where I got lost in the Dungeon that Joan of Arc lived in)

Chinon Castle
Walking to the old ville in Chinon
Hannah, Jessica, and Mari
THE GIANT Tours Religieuse
Cathedral de Tours

24 fevrier 2010 (Day 177)
Well, I didn’t sleep to well last night. I woke up to a rainstorm and went out walking in it at 4:30am. You see, I booked the train for Tours at 6am because I figured that the tram would be running well before then. The tram doesn’t come by where I live until 5:25am…whoops. Needless to say Hannah, Jessica (cute girl 21 from Washington), and I went out in that rain to walk to the train station. It was a really nice walk (besides the wind and rain) and we made killer time. We got to the train station in less than an hour (normally it takes 60 minutes just to get to Commerce). Needless to say the shortcut that I found to the train station yesterday on my run was indeed a shortcut.
I loved Tours. On the train ride there we saw the most beautiful sunrise. The sun was gold and the clouds were purple and blue. It was amazing. Elder Bourgeois’ map was more than accurate. We saw the turtle fountain, the tree-lined walkway, and I found THE BOULANGERIE. It is only the boulangerie that ALL the missionaries talk about that is in Tours. It is a perfectly normal boulangerie except that everything is huge. There were meringues as big as my head and éclairs that were about a foot long. They had the infamous Tours Religeuse so I bought one and took it to the Tours Cathedral and tried to down it there. It was toffee flavored so I didn’t really like it and it was HUGE! It was about the size of my head. I downed about half of it and had to stop for a while. We went into this gorgeous gothic cathedral from the 15th century with flying buttresses and amazing stained glass windows, it was beautiful. We went back in again later and someone was playing the organ. It was an experience to be in that cathedral with the music playing. I can see how they would find it so mystical. We then wandered to a park-like square that looked like it was straight out of Pride and Prejudice. I wished I was wearing an old fashioned dress and had some handsome young man trying to woo me. Instead there was a 16,000+ dead elephant! It was from Barnibum and Bailey’s circus in the early 1900s. The elephant was about 80 when it died and they stuffed it. There was also this humongous Lebanon Cedar. I really have never seen such a large tree. It was 31 meters (102 feet) tall with a branch span of 33 meters (108 feet). The trunk has a circumference of 7.5 meters (24.5 feet)…does that give you a picture of how big it is? It was planted in 1804, so it is pretty amazing…over 200 years old of CO2 stored up in that baby.
We went by the opera house and some of the older part of Tours to go see the cemetery. On the way we went past the chateau of Tours and over a bridge. The cemetery was really impressive. French cemeteries aren’t like American cemeteries…there isn’t really any grass. They also will frequently have mass family graves. By the time we got back by the train station the girls were pooped so I went exploring by myself. I found the Place Jean Jaures with the Town Hall and the Palais de Justice that was white and taken right out of Greek antiquity. I followed along the tree-lined walkway and found an infinitely long (I never made it to the end) flower market which then turned into a clothing/food market.
We hopped on the train and headed to Chinon. Chinon is a ridiculously old city. King Henry II (England) developed Chinon a lot and Charles VII met Joan of Arc at the castle in Chinon in 1429. It was so unbelievable to be where Joan of Arc was. She is such a mystical historical figure that it was so weird to think that she walked on the same ground. Hannah also peed on that ground, lol. I was proud of her for peeing in the forest, I wouldn’t have. We headed up into the hills where some of the old fortress remains and had lunch looking down on the countryside. The vielle ville (old city) was completely deserted. I felt like I should have been on a horse instead of walking down those cobbled streets with my tennis shoes and backpack. It was incredible. We went into a wine cave which was really cool. They had huge barrels of wine and hundreds if not thousands of bottles of wine.
We then found the official castle and went in. It was really windy on the top of that hill! We had a tour and our guide was great. She taught us about how Phillipe II perfected the circular guard towers because it was more economical, has a better view, and it is more crash resistant against cannon balls. Our guide also told that store about King Richard and how Robin des Bois came about. I wish I would have taken notes (it was cold and windy and hard to hear her as it was). Needless to say, that castle has an amazing history. We went to the room where Joan of Arc supposedly met the king. I also went to the dungeon that Joan stayed in. Yes, she stayed in the dungeon. Apparently it wasn’t that bad of a place to stay (they’d have guests stay there). It was a nice dungeon because it had a freezer and toilets. I got lost in it. I also ran through (literally) the Joan of Arc museum and then the castle was closed.
The girls were pretty whiny by now so we went to a cute café and got some hot drinks. I had some pretty good hot chocolate and the girls warmed up. Jessica also remembered at this time that she forgot her toothbrush. We went to a grocery store by the train station, but they didn’t have toothbrushes! We went into a nearby café/bar to ask where we could find a toothbrush. We asked (in French) this older man and he was so funny. He immediately tried saying our question in English and asked how you spell teeth. “T-ee-double e-t-h.” It was really funny. The lady who ran the place then came, corrected his English spelling and they told us to go to the pharmacy. We walked back to the middle of town (not far) and found a tooth brush. I bought a delicious pear at that grocery store that was amazing. We also bought some avocados for tomorrow.
We totally almost missed the bus. You see, we thought the bus was going to be a train. Luckily some nice gentleman that was also riding on the bus informed us that it was a bus we were waiting for and that it was going to leave. We all lounged out in the back of the bus and got nervous that the driver forgot our stop. Luckily he didn’t and we got dropped off in a small city by Tours to catch our train to Blois.
We spent a while in Blois trying to figure out which way to go to find our hotel. We guessed the right way but couldn’t find it. I asked a lady who was walking her dog. She was very nice and showed us the way. The man at the hotel was interesting. He tried to talk to us in English but I kept on answering in French so finally he spoke in French. He asked if we found the place alright because people always get lost (I wonder why…they don’t have any directions on their site). He showed us to our room and the girls were in heaven. Three beds, a tv, and a bathroom with a bathtub/shower was all they needed to think that I was the greatest in the world (never mind seeing stuff). They decided they were going to sleep in tomorrow and I was going to explore Blois on my own. We all took showers and watched some of the Olympics. Watching the figure skating without the Todd Hamilton commenting was just not the same!

Day 176: 7 Miles with an English Lesson

23 fevrier 2010 (Day 176)
I am the bomb. The bomb being someone who ran over 7 miles today. I ran everywhere! After almost getting ran over (don’t worry, I am a pro at jumping on the hoods of ladies who aren’t paying attention and trying to squish me flat), I ran to the Japanese Garden, a couple of squares, the castle, and all over the Jardin des Plantes (Plant Garden). I finished my run before a lot of rain. I was so proud of myself for running so far. I went over lots of bridges and it was adventurous. I had some Chinese food for lunch (I bought egg rolls). I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed having Chinese food…yummy!
Before I went to help teach English at the church I went and got my weekly macarons (vanilla was surprisingly disappointing), I went to the book store (still no Harry Potter 5-7), and printed off my train tickets for our trip which will start very very early tomorrow morning! I was reading Proust on the tram so I didn’t notice that Elder Lazarev and Knapp were on the tram. I guess Elder Knapp was trying to sneak up to steal my book but there were some ladies looking at him so he had to talk to one so it didn’t look suspicious. I got a text from Hannah which woke me up from my book and I noticed the Elders. I am sure that the lady next to me thought I was crazy because I kept looking at the missionaries (Knapp was talking to a lady and Lazarev was making faces) and vice versa. While walking to the church the Elders joked that I put a GPS in one of their bags because I keep running into them. This one was not on purpose though. Yesterday I had a gut feeling that the missionaries would be at Carrefour. Well, Elder Knapp continued to be (cough) so kind to me so he had me introduce myself and then told the small group there that I was going to be teaching the lesson today. Well then, now wasn’t that interesting. Elder Knapp (after correcting some of my English) then disappeared and so I had a wild ride impromptu-ing a lesson. It wasn’t too bad, but you know me and I like to be organized. I’m going to figure out sometime how to get Elder Knapp back. Elder Bourgeois broke the chalkboard (can we say funny!). Don’t ask me how, but he did.

Day 175: You Can Buy Me a Drink

22 fevrier 2010 (Day 175)
Today I ran into the missionaries at the store. It was pretty nuts. I went to Carrefour to get some oats and canned goods and low and behold in the yogurt aisle…the missionaries! Elder Lazarev gave me an odd look and went marching down the aisle away from me. Elder Knapp tried calling the other pair telling them that they were contacting this cool lady and that they should come meet her. It didn’t work. It was great because I needed better directions for how to get a “Tours Religieuse” in Tours and Elder Bourgeois drew me a very very detailed map.
After I did my shopping I went on a nice six mile run around the riverbanks of the Erdre. The other highlight of my day was going to John MyByrne’s, a popular Irish pub in Nantes with my friend Andrei. I met Andrei at an Autour de Monde activity. He is 22/23, Romanian, and perfectly trilingual (English, French, Romanian). We had a nice time talking and saying goodbye. He has been here on work experience in the hospitals for the past 6 months because he is going to be a doctor. We talked about movies, his hair (he is growing it out- he asked me what I thought about it), vacationing, where he should work, his sister, etc. He had a beer and bought me a hot chocolate (how nice). I was mostly really impressed that he convinced them to make me hot chocolate. We stayed there for a couple of hours but after a while we were both yawning so we went home. It was sort of weird because it was kind of a date because it was just us and he bought me a drink, but it kind of wasn’t. Fun stuff.

Day 174: Oh Elder Knapp...

Elder Knapp, me, and Cheryl with "The Skirt"

21 fevrier 2010 (Day 174)
Today was another early Sunday, but luckily it wasn’t as cold. I got some really good studying done even though there was a creepy drunk guy who just had to sit by me with his smelly drunk breath all shivering. There were a billion other benches. I was just thinking in my head “Protection. I’m reading Preach My Gospel!” Poor Hannah may have caught my cold. Sucks to be her (though why it took SO long doesn’t make sense).
Church was good. I spent a lot of it thinking about the possibility of going on a mission. I talked with Elder Knapp about it a little bit from across the font on Saturday, so I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I gave the prayer in Relief Society and it was okay. Isabel bore her testimony in sacrament and she led as well. One of the Elders asked her to and he sat by some investigators. Some people from Madagascar thought I was a sister missionary. And the young women’s president in my ward, that I have talked to before who sees me every week, asked me if I was a missionary. I really wanted to say, “I’ve been in your ward for almost six months and you have never seen me with a companion or a missionary tag. I also introduced myself many months ago and you sustained me as a new member of this ward.” But I didn’t.
The elder’s helped answer some of my Preach My Gospel vocab questions which led to some good conversations. It was definitely eventful after church today. Isabel and Cheryl were singing and dancing the hokey pokey. This was before they tried to make lots of jokes about me wearing my black skirt and being hot. I shouldn’t have told them. They proceeded to take pictures of my skirt, them with my skirt, them lifting my skirt, me with the Elder who made the skirt comment, and it was really embarrassing. As Elder Knapp put it, he was really surprised when he found out that they were both at least twenty. After that episode, I definitely agree. We had a crazy YSA meeting to try to figure out our next activity/making crepes/a goodbye party for Isabel.
Riding home was awful today. The tram didn’t come when it said it would (came twenty minutes later) and then it dropped us off at a stop and told us to wait for the next tram. Luckily no one really bothered me though. I definitely wasn’t the happiest child when I got home though because my compartment syndrome was acting up in right leg (weather change maybe? I hope so). So I listened to the Mormon channel online, read a lot of church talks, wrote in my journal, and kind of took a nap (it was a state in between paying attention and sleeping). I am apparently still really tired.
Hung didn’t come to church today like she said she would, so around 9:30pm tonight Elder Knapp (Elder Knapp because Elder Lazarev just has problems when he tries to converse with me. His crazy puppy syndrome gets worse. He doesn’t pay attention at all.) called and asked if I would call Hung (I think it might be spelled Han) to see if she was okay and if she wanted to go to French lessons on Saturday. After talking for a couple of minutes with Elder Knapp, which included me bothering him for the fact that he didn’t mention that he goes to UPenn, the 4th ranked Ivy League in the nation that Ben Franklin founded and is ranked in like the top 15 universities worldwide and has the most awesome looking campus ever. I’m totally jealous and feel really dumb that I didn’t realize that when he said I go to the University of Pennsylvania it wasn’t some public school, but one of the best private schools out there. He doesn’t like people knowing and gets really embarrassed and just thinks he is good at taking tests. Yeah right. He is double majoring and double minoring…French maybe economics…I don’t remember.
I called Han and talked to her for a couple of minutes. She didn’t hear her alarm go off and that is why she didn’t come. She felt really badly and couldn’t call the missionaries back because she is out of phone minutes. She is planning on going to the French lessons at the church on Saturday though. I reported back to the missionaries…they said something (possibly funny) to which Elder Knapp said, “It is Mari” and then someone took the phone and was like there is an incoming call and I’m sorry to cut this conversation short but Elder Knapp has to go.” Before that I was saying that we needed something awkward for this conversation and Elder Knapp said, “I could get Elder Lazarev on the phone. He is in the kitchen right now.” I totally burst out laughing. It was funny. He gets points for that one. It was great and it wasn’t even bad sarcastic humor (hint dad and Kent).

Day 173: A day in the life of a missionary (with kisses!)

20 fevrier 2010 (Day 173)
I ran twenty miles this week! Hurray for me. So far I have slid down muddy hills, slipped on icy bridges, ran across lots of mud that had salt on it (yes, they salt dirt paths here), and saw two cute boys running. They both ran a lot faster than I do though. I saw one of them today on my run around and around the horse track, he didn’t stay very long though, and for that I was a little disappointed.
I got a lot of things done this morning. My floor got swept AND mopped (very rare to get mopped), I listened to lots of Conference talks and who knows what else. I went off to the market with the intention to see if my vendor friend would maybe want to come to church (Elder Lazarev had asked me yesterday if I’d be willing to sit with some of the investigating people at church, especially the ones I know. This got me thinking that I should ask some of my friends to church.). I probably spent about 45 minutes looking for him today (or at least it felt that long) but I didn’t find him. I also went to the market around 11:30 (normally I’m there between 9 and 10:30) and it was PACKED. It was ridiculous. The market is definitely less enjoyable when my vendor friend is missing. I did get my apples from the usual people (there are three of them, an old lady, and younger woman with dark hair, and this man) that only sell apples. I also found some genie pants for cheap! They are the most awful looking pants ever and the ones I found are practically neon! Genie pants (they are really poofy…think of the pants Aladdin wears) are really popular in France, so I am pretty excited that I found some cheap (in both senses) genie pants. Continuing with my exotic Arabic-ness I got some sort of flat bread. I asked the man what it was called, but I didn’t understand. He was a mumbler. I was hoping it would taste like naan. It tastes more like breadsticks. I also got some Viking bread! It is a special super healthy bread with lots of seeds and such that is sold at the boulangerie by the church. It reminds me of a kind of bread that you could find at Great Harvest, so needless to say, I like it a lot.
I got to the church about 10 minutes to one and the missionaries were teaching someone in the primary room, so I just waited in the hallway. At about 1:15 the missionaries asked me to help teach French at 1 got there. After some time they eventually got the partners switched and Elder Knapp and Elder Maxfield changed to go cut fagots. That would be chopping firewood, but we English speakers enjoy calling it fagots. It was really weird seeing the missionaries in non-proselyting clothing. It definitely gives you more of an idea about their personalities. Elder Lavarez told me too look out for Chinese people while he went in to the primary room. He didn’t come out for about two hours. No Chinese people came. A man did come wondering about geneology though. For that I interrupted the missionaries and they helped him. While he was leaving Elder Bourgeois invited him to the baptism tonight and this old non-religious man got all upset and said that is what he hates about our religion and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that we are always insisting. Elder Bourgeois said no, that he only invited him and then wished him a good day. Later he said, “If I invited him to have 1 million dollars he wouldn’t say that I was insisting.” It’s true, but I was impressed with how Elder Bourgeois handled it. It was a good reminder that not everyone is nice to the missionaries. So essentially, I was left all by myself in the church waiting for the missionaries. It was kind of a good thing (in that lame sort of way) because I was able to read more of my required reading for French Lit. It was definitely the most I’ve read (and I still haven’t even passed page 100).
After what ended up being a 3 hour lesson the missionaries were done and Tao decided that he was going to be baptized next month, when he finds a good Chinese day. You see, Tao is Chinese and so once Elder Lazarev went in they started talking in Chinese and Tao was able to ask all of his deep questions about the Chinese culture and the religion, about green tea, etc. They played ping pong with Tao for a while and then Tao left. Then the missionaries kept playing ping pong (sometimes I think those boys do nothing, then I realize I probably see them when they are needing ‘missionary breaks’ so I try not to judge). They could have at least invited me to play or apologize for leaving me without knowing what was happening (typical boys). They are goofs. After playing for so long they realized they needed to go get stuff for the baptism and clean out the font, etc. Seeing as I would be late for the baptism if I went home and came back at this point I offered to clean the font. They had a nice little drumming moment (at least 3 minutes) together and then they headed off and I tried to figure out how to clean a baptismal font. I made it up as I went and succeeded. I then made sure that the rest of the meeting house was all set up. I am a monster! I set up all the chairs and tables. When I was done Elder Baker and Elder Horne walked in. Elder Horne is a blondie from Murray and Elder Baker served in Nantes for a while. He has grown up so much! He is so much more confident and comfortable with himself. It was amazing to see the difference in him. He is doing really good though and LOVES his companion. You’d think that they were just two best friends since they were six. Elder Maxfield and Knapp came and I got to turn on the font. I was pretty excited. I should have started it earlier than the other elders said though because it barely got filled in time!
Adessa’s baptism went really well. Elder Lazarev through an investegator on me. He basically said, (or mouthed/hand signaled) “This is Hung, she speaks English come talk to her.” I then got to try to explain baptism and the Holy Ghost to a sweet Vietnamese girl who knows nothing about Christianity. Talk about feeling inadequate! I was just praying that she could feel the spirit and that I could say the right things. She said she liked it and said she was going to come to church tomorrow, but she didn’t. The talk about the Holy Ghost was really great. Adessa’s testimony was…interesting. She talked a lot about some crazy revelations she had and I was thinking about Hung so I wasn’t completely paying attention to what she We had treats after the baptism. Someone bought brownies and they tasted like America…aka sooo good! While we were cleaning up Elder Knapp called me a drageur. That is calling someone a really big flirt in France (mentioned because of what some of those crazy girls said). I got a little offended, but mostly pretend offend. I still found a note in my backpack from said elder saying sorry and that he was teasing. I finished helping to clean up and then headed home with one of the three sets of missionaries (the other two got a ride home) and Paki and Gaelle. Best part of the ride is that I got a kiss. And it was good. It was also from a missionary. Now before you freak out, it was a mint. And Paki and Gaelle got one as well. It was great though because Elder Knapp asked, “Do you want a kiss?” Me: “Yup!” They were called kiss mints and it was blueberry flavored and really really good. I like missionary kisses and I think I need to find some more. We definitely joked about kisses after that one.

Day 170: I Hate French Lit

17 fevrier 2010 (Day 170)
It is so nuts starting the week on Wednesday. It also doesn’t help that class starts at 8am and is French literature. Today my notes were filled with “I hate French Literature” doodled in available white space. I don’t like studying literature in English, and in French it is even worse. Today our teacher was (at least attempting) to talk about surrealism but he kept on going on these odd tangents and mentioned at least 50 people (but not anything that they did) which I am sure we are supposed to have memorized. I walked into class and my understanding of French was just crappy today and so it made it a lot worse. I did understand when the teacher quoted A. Breton as saying, “Literature is one of the sadest ways…” or something like that. I agree. The class made me really stressed and so I went home and had some hot cocoa to mellow out. I also read on Wikipedia about surrealism. My two hour class was summed up on that one page. It kind of made me wonder why I went to class when it was clearer online.
Luckily sociology of cultures doesn’t suck. Today we actually spent almost two hours analyzing a graph that was about the style of music listened to by French persons divided by sex, age, and their job. It was actually quite interesting. Boys have a tendency to listen to the “harder” stuff (theories to why included boys being more virile…ha ha awkward!), the youngest listening to the crappy stuff (by crappy I mean rap, hard rock, etc) and the older you get the more classical, opera, etc. There wasn’t really a difference between the different jobs, except CEO kind of people listen to classical more than the other groups. The second French lit class was a little bit better. Only because it is one and a half hours and not two. Our teacher did say some noteworthy things though. We (by we I mean he) got talking about why people write. So apparently (I don’t agree with this all but whatevs) there are four systems of signs: mundain, love (often erotic), memory, and art. To receive the truth you must go through these four systems. So since Proust wrote a totally boring book with no intrigue or hero, that let him dabble in his perverted homosexuality while reviewing his past (memory) in 7 freaking books, he reached the summit, or another universe that has truth. Yeah, fantastic, isn’t it. So, when I’m older I’ll write about wanting my mother to tuck me in and then disguise my homosexual relations by changing that character to a man in my book and then I will be a timeless author. Yeah, if you haven’t noticed, I’m not a fan of Marcel Proust. His style of writing is great, but I don’t care for what he writes about. Needless to say I have a new appreciation for Shakespeare (and I don’t like Shakespeare) and his ability to not suck.
It was humorous because I was looking up a word in a French dictionary and I saw the word “happy end” (not happy ending) and then not 30 seconds later my teacher used “happy end” in a sentence. I’m so glad the French have such a great command of the English language, lol (laugh out loud for all you old folks). I think I am pretty much going to say “happy end” all the time now.
I went on a relaxing run after all this fantastic ‘to know the truth you must be an erotic snob who thinks about the past to access pure time’ crap. I think running is pure time. Running lately has been giving me some stellar blisters on my left foot. I’m not sure why, my Brooks have never given me blisters before and I should have lots of miles left on my shoes even though I’ve had them for a while. And also I don’t want to try to get a new pair of shoes and have to lug them around all summer. Hopefully my feet and legs will hold up until July.
I decided to buy some taboulé and have it for dinner. I thought it was cous cous with tomatoes (which it is). I felt so proud of myself for getting the can open with a knife (no pop top and I don’t have a can opener) and then I found out taboulé has mint in it. A lot of mint. So basically I had a spoonful and it gave me a stomach ache. Instead I had a potato with cheese and some rosetta meat and peas. There were some new people in the kitchen who weren’t American or English but they were speaking English…it was weird.
Horror story: I saw an American eating like Kraft singles here. She was putting it in an omelet. I had this urge to slap it out of her hand. Who eats over processed cheese individually wrapped in plastic in France?!?!!? What Frenchman has the nerve to sell that stuff and call it fromage in France??!! Needless to say, I’m appalled.
I was going to go to bed early because I was tired, but I somehow started looking up day trips for next week (we have a week off of school). I ended up planning a two-day four city trip including what trains and where we can sleep. It is going to be pretty close to Nantes (a couple of hours by train from Nantes) to see some awesome castles and such. I ended up going to bed around midnight because Brad Call (my brother’s brother-in-law) was telling me about how I have to find a Tours religieuse while I am in Tours. It is this giant pastry that sort of looks like a religious building that I think is like an éclaire (besides in looks).

Day 169: Fat Tuesday Indeed

crumble noisette
16 fevrier 2010
I am so proud of myself today. I didn’t sleep in (even though it was really tempting). I set my alarm for 7am and got up then. I was secretly hoping that I could talk to some of my friends online then, but the internet wasn’t working! I had breakfast, did yoga, and read my scriptures. Right as I finished reading my scriptures the internet started working. Some of my friends were still on even though it was after midnight for them, but they didn’t really stay on to talk to me.
I went downstairs and got new sheet s and went off on a run. It was a nice run, only -4C today. At first I was planning on heading to my favorite forest but then at the last moment I changed my mind and decided to run along the river. I saw the boy’s cross country team running as well as a bunch of other people. The highlight was definitely when I was running on the board walk. They have these intermittent switchbacks like annoying-things to keep bikers from going too fast because you have to weave around to get through. I was happily running along, trying to catch up with the very attractive very fast runner ahead of me (he was really moving) when I slipped going through the switchback! I banged my knee and one of my feet went through the side planks and was partially stuck. I had a little audience for this and they made sure I was okay. I finished up my run and when I got home, glory glory I have a magnificent hematoma. It is definitely now more painful to walk then it was to keep on running. After showering I noticed that I had a lot of standing water so I decided to clean out the drain. Eww. Eww. Eww. That is more disgusting than the fish tank in Finding Nemo when Nemo makes the filter stop working.
I’ve discovered Cat Stevens this week and have been listening to him a lot. I really like his songs “Can’t Keep It In” “Father and Son” “Don’t Be Shy” and “The Wind”.
You’ve got so much to say, say what you mean, Mean what you’re thinking, and think anything. Oh why, why must you wast your life away, You’ve got to live for today, then let it go. –Can’t Keep It In
It’s not time to make a change, Just relax, take it easy. You’re still young, that’s your fault, there’s so much you have to know. Find a girl, settle down, If you want you can marry, Look at me, I am old but I’m happy. –Father and Son
While I am writing random things, I got sent this today and I really liked it.
Life is too short to wake up with regrets.
So love the people who treat you right.
Love the ones who don't just because you can.
Believe everything happens for a reason.
If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.
If it changes your life, let it.
Kiss slowly.
Forgive quickly.
God never said life would be easy.
He just promised it would be worth it.
So today is Mardi Gras. I was planning on going out with Hannah into town but Hannah is going ice skating and seeing as I banged my knee today, I am not up for ice skating so I am spending a quiet evening at home instead. I probably need it since I took a nap today (that cold got me good). Also Hannah has noticed that going to real French classes just exhausts you because you work so hard to listen and take notes. I’ve yet to study my notes though (oops) or read more of the stinking Schwann book…it is just not Harry Potter, lol. I did have a nice rice and bean creation for dinner as my celebration of Mardi Gras, although I don’t think I’m giving up anything this year for forty days. Maybe if I think of something…
SWEET OF THE WEEK I decided to get my treat today since my knee was turning purple and I felt badly for it. I ended up getting a “crumble noisette” why she said it is noisette, I don’t know. But basically it is a tarte crust with chocolate and apple filling with chocolate crumble on top. It was pretty decent and perfect to soothe my chocolate craving tooth today.

Day 168: FHE at the Garon's

15 fevrier 2010 (Day 168)
Today was a good day. I had lots and lots of dreams last night about the missionaries and I think some of them were even in French, which is a good thing! I went running in the cold to the new area that Hannah showed me and I didn’t get lost! I was so proud of myself and it looks like it will make a nice 30 minute loop. I was also not painfully sore from rowing for the first time today and it was a sunny day (although cold). I think it was around -6C when I went out for my run.
The highlight of the day was definitely going to a soiree familiale (family home evening) with Joel and Anne Garon. They are Isabel’s “French parents” and they have one child left at home, Quinton, who is 18. I left a little before 5pm so that I could meet Cheryl at Commerce and go to their home. I thought the trams were on the holiday schedule which is why I left so early, but I guess it is only the buses, so I got to Commerce early and went into FNAC (like Barnes and Noble or Borders). They are having this crazy sale where you can get 5 dvds for 30 euros. Apparently Cheryl has bought 28 dvds in the past week! I can’t even imagine having that much spending money. Being in France has made me realize how much money my parents don’t have and how I never really realized how much of a difference there was because they manage their money so well. I definitely am thankful that I have parents who are very conservative with their money and spend it wisely. After Cheryl switched one of the movies that she had bought we got on the tram to go to the Garon’s. I told Cheryl about my funny Valentine’s day and she told me about how her ex-boyfriend broke up with his current girlfriend because Valentine’s day just wasn’t the same without Cheryl and cried to her on the phone. He is apparently coming to visit Cheryl in Paris for a day next month. Cheryl doesn’t want to date him again…oh boy.
We waited for Isabel and the last stop and then got on a bus to go to the Garon’s. Those two girls are crazy and boisterously loud. They were getting lots of looks on the bus. Bless their hearts though, they have so much fun. The Garon’s house is really cute. It is in a quiet city outside of Nantes. Joel made us some delicious crepes. We ate them with jams, peanut butter (crunchy or smooth), nutella, and this gingerbread flavored spread (quite good). I had about three. Quinton was being quite a sass all night. He was making hasty generalizations about groups of people (don’t we all) like that British people always put dark around their eyes and Americans sparkle (the Brits had on eye liner, I had on sparkles) and that Chinese people liked fat because they have sumos. I thought it was pretty funny although it was less funny after the prayer for FHE where I mentioned about being grateful to be together as a family and Quinton commented that if they were there wouldn’t be two Brits and an American and that there would be two other people. I didn’t really take offense until his parents got very upset at him for saying this, which was when I knew that he was quite serious. I guess some people don’t get the concept that a “family” can really be any group of people together, and even if it isn’t all the “family” members you are still a family. Anyway, Isabel gave a really good lesson about prayer. She had an activity where she gave us half a sheet of paper and we had scissors and the mission to stick our head through it. I had some vague memory of doing this in elementary school and so I succeeded (though we weren’t really supposed to). Isabel had lots of good scriptures and quotes. At the end Cheryl shared a story about listening to the spirit and then the Garon’s shared a few from their life experiences. I really liked when Joel said that when we don’t wait for God’s answer it is like calling someone on the phone, talking, and then just hanging up without letting them answer. I really liked that analogy. It was so great to have family home evening! With the songs sung and everyone participating you could really feel the spirit. It might just be me, but I seem to be more perceptive of the spirit in situations like this, especially when there are other spirits to glean from. I don’t know if it is because I just never feel the spirit here or since I am alone most of the time now I really notice the feel-good difference of what was around me all the time in Utah.
The Garon’s practically insisted that I call my family since they can call the United States for free. I immediately called Grandma and Grandpa Keeley to see how they were doing, but no one answered the phone so I just left a message. I then called my house to have a very surprised father answer. I said hello and he paused for quite some time and then responded with a greeting and asked me what I was doing calling them. It was good to talk to everyone (I talked for around 40 minutes to my family). The most significant thing that came out of this conversation is that my dad said that I can start putting in my papers to go on a mission when I get home in July instead of waiting a year. I won’t go into details on my blog, but that has got me thinking. A lot.
Around 9:30 Joel drove Cheryl and I home, where I continued to think about what my dad said late into the night gazing at the stars.

Day 167: the phrase 'you're hot' equates to the best. valentine's. day. ever.

14 fevrier 2010 (Day 167)
I’m pretty sure this was like the best Valentine’s day ever. I woke up to a text from Hannah saying Happy V-day and that she’d see me soon. I got dressed for church in my fantastically bright pink tights that match my bright pink shirt. I was super smart and made the very good decision to put on my sweat pants and socks before heading out. Hannah and I took the tram today because the wardies that normally take us are on vacation. Needless to say, we were out in sub-zero temperatures for quite a while. It was cold enough that we decided to walk towards the tram (aka in the opposite direction of the church) so that we could get onto the tram sooner for the sake of Hannah. I was happy temperature wise and therefore enjoyed reading Preach My Gospel while Hannah chattered her teeth. We were welcomed on the train by this lovely gentleman checking out our butts and saying, “Salut” (hey). We didn’t sit by him. Instead we sat by the hung-over man whose face looked like he had leprosy. Or that this dandruff spread to his face. We met the Rakotovao family (Paki and Gaelle and their mom- the ones from Madagascar that are all super short) on the tram. I was hoping that the new missionaries would be on the tram, but they weren’t so we had to wait to get to the church to meet them.
It was really cold in relief society today so Hannah and I had a snuggle-under-the-coat party. In Sunday school I passed out the cookies that I made for Valentine’s Day. Paki said that they were the best cookies that she had ever tasted, and was quite enamored with the cookies. Poor Quinton was so tired that he was just sleeping in class. We talked about the Abrahamic covenant and then went to Sacrament. We heard some great news in sacrament meeting today. Adessa, one of the “amis” (what we call investigators in France, though ‘ami’ means friend), is getting baptized on Saturday. She is a really nice black lady who has been coming for about the past month or so to church and is always really nice and helps to do the dishes and stuff.
We had choir pretty much right after Sacrament today, so I didn’t get to eat lunch beforehand like normal. Choir was mellow today, besides Isabel’s “French dad” being hilarious. He is always such a jokester and today was no exception. He sang with the altos and sopranos and was just a hoot.
So the new missionaries…oh the stories to tell! First things first…We still have Elder Bourgeois and Elder Maxfield here. They are the zone leaders and both have brown hair. Maxfield is the tall silent type and Bourgeois is a little shorter, blue-eyed, slightly cocky (he’s Texan, which explains it), and is amazing at improvising with songs to make them sound really pretty. Bourgeois roomed at BYU with Elder Abe McKay (from Kaysville) before coming on his mission.
Elder Lazarev is the Chinese-speaking elder that is not Chinese. He is actually American and from Washington DC. And French. His dad is French, his mom studied French in college, and he went to a French university in America and has been speaking French all his life. He has been in Paris the past 14 months serving his mission Chinese speaking so he is here in Nantes taking a well deserved break from Paris. His companion says he’s never seen anyone so excited to see an animal that isn’t a pigeon or to see trees. He’s pretty tall with dark hair and dark eyes and a bad buzz cut. He was at BYU for a year before going on his mission.
Elder Knapp is one of those stocky baby-faced blondies. He is from Pennsylvania although he’s lived all over. He went to high school in Utah, so he is actually really good friends with Elder Smiley whom he went to high school with (Smiley is the one that gave me the blessing). Before coming to Nantes he was in the mission office. He told the Mission President that he wanted to learn Chinese and that is why he is Elder Lazarev’s companion.
I talked with both of them after choir. I talked more with Elder Knapp though. Our conversation covered anything and everything including where Anthony should go on his mission, me going on a mission, the White missionary handbook (which I got to read some of), breaking mission rules (apparently you can kiss a girl and not get sent home…you have to break commandments), French, marrying French people, French bisous, etc. They are really great and super nice. They fed me some of their leftover rice and after staying at the church for a very long time we went to the tram. While going there they helped me some with my French accent. Oh it was so great! I can only imagine how nice it would be to be on a mission with a companion to teach you the language. Hopefully I’ll get better since they were both giving me tips and helping me. Elder Lazarev is hoping to stay here for a really long time (I don’t think he wants to go back to Paris anytime soon). He is a great missionary though. He doesn’t even know how long he REALLY has been out or when he is supposed to go home. You can tell that he is really excited about being here and finding Chinese people to teach. He’s hoping to get a whole entire little community of them so they can go back to China and be leaders there it is just so excited. I hope he gets to stay a while, because you can really tell that he needs a break from Paris. EVERYTHING was just so exciting and great and perfect in his eyes.
When I was at Recteur Schmitt Elder Bourgeois called me. He was wondering if I could look online for when the train was that came to Nantes from where he was at. I was more than excited to help out the missionaries. Great thing was he didn’t tell me he wanted to me look for a train and not a bus, so after a few minutes of frustration I called to ask what bus line number. He then corrected me and said it was a train, so I quickly found the times and they went off on their way.
I saw a ton of Chinese people once I switched trams and was no longer with the missionaries (how ironic). I had talked to them about my friend Zang Chao and how he was from China so I’d ask him if he wanted to talk to Elder Lezarev (it’s a Russian last name…ironic, I know). I remembered that I am Facebook friends with a chinese kid in my hallway. I quickly wrote him a note on Facebook saying that I had a friend who was here in Nantes that was American but spoke Chinese and was looking for people to talk to in Chinese about Christianity. Vitusx said sure! I was so excited and so I called Elder Lezarev to see if I should give Vitusx his number or ask for Vitusx. Elder Lezarev was super excited. So excited that he wasn’t paying attention to what I was asking him. I don’t think it helped that all the Elders were there. I heard Elder Knapp yell, “Are you wearing your black skirt?” (This was a reference to his earlier comment about when he first saw me he thought, “Wow pink!” To which I had to explain that I only had one skirt here in France, and that the skirt was actually made for my sister’s friend when she was on her mission, and so I “accessorize” as he put it. This led to a conversation about missionaries and ties/wearing the same tie/do you make sure your ties match before you leave.) The black skirt question led to lots of laughing and Elder Bourgeois yelling at the phone that it wasn’t him that said it. It was pretty funny and I didn’t say anything. I finally got my answer from Elder Lezarev and wrote Vitusx again. Elder L also invited me to come on Saturday to help teach English to Chinese people at the church.
It was only about an hour later when Vitusx wrote me back with his phone number and said that he he is excited and thanks a lot! I naturally called Elder Lazarev back to tell him the phone number (don’t worry, it wasn’t late). He was totally blown away and super excited. He was actually in the middle of making coq au vin, a French specialty (rooster cooked in wine…the irony, I know). Out of nowhere I hear from Elder Lazarev [in English], “You’re hot. (pause) Oh wait, no. I didn’t mean that….Oh man, I mean the pan. Not you. It was hot, I’m cooking.” Needless to say, neither of us could stop laughing for a good two minutes. I never thought I’d have a missionary say, “You’re hot” to me. He thanked me for the phone number, saying that I was super great and that all the missionaries loved the cookies and valentines and that the other missionaries said to say thank you.
Yeah, that pretty much made my life. Elder Lazarev is NOT living that one down anytime soon. I’m just proud of myself for refraining from pretending that I was offended that he didn’t think I was hot.
I also got the greatest email from Amber. She was asking if kissing someone with a paper in between your lips counts as a kiss if you are VL (virgin lips). She only asked the question with no explanation. This led to lots of speculations on my part as to what happened (ward valentine party, obstacle course, part of the course, later ended up accidentally kicking the boy in the crotch…ha ha). Man did Amber and I have awesome Single’s Awareness Days today.

Day 166: Much Ado About Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson, the stud who I wish was my boyfriend (he reminds me of Zac Efron, but with better eyes)
13 fevrier 2010 (Day 166)
Today was a crazy busy Saturday. I stayed up sort of late and so I ended up sleeping until around 8:30-9am. I ended up getting distracted online by Kyle and making a love chart of all my guy friends (I am terrible with names) and the girl(s) they like. After I realized how much time had floated away I quickly got ready for the day so that I could go see my vendor friend and how he was liking the book. I did my normal Saturday in town ritual: go to the used bookstore to see if they have Harry Potter 5-7, pick out two macarons from the chocolate store, buy a kilo of apples from the vendors there that just sell apples, and then find my vendor friend and get whatever else I want (lately it has been clementines). I bought two amazing macarons- chocolate and grapefruit. I was worried that the grapefruit one would be awful, but it was incredible. The chocolate macaron only got 3 stars in my book. I couldn’t find Haikkel so I tried calling him, but it went straight to his messaging. I hurried home to make some pasta with broccoli, carrots, and cheese before going back into town to meet Kev to go to the movies. But before I ate I gave the older man who is normally at the help desk on weekends some of my cookies. His surprised face totally made my day. I made it just in time to catch the bus we took to where his car was parked (it was perfect timing…lucky because I was late!). Kev was nice and opened all the doors for me (which was awkward at the same time. It is not at all in the French culture for boys to be chivalrous and I haven’t been around guys like that for a really really really long time, so it was almost awkward for me. And the fact that I wasn’t sure if it was hanging out or a date (because there weren’t other people). We drove to the IKEA because the movie theatre we went to is by there. Kev has this stellar pass where you pay 30 euros and you get unlimited movies for two people for a month. It isn’t a bad deal at all if you go to the movies all the time (there is a single person one for 20). We decided to see Percy Jackson, The Lightning thief dubbed in French. It was great! I haven’t read the books (I’ve heard that the books are better…naturally), and I didn’t see the original version, but I really enjoyed it in French. It didn’t even bother me that the lips and the words they were saying didn’t match up and I understood pretty much every single thing said. It was also an entertaining film to watch with a fun storyline. I recommend it.
Kev and I got a little lost on the way home, but it was alright because we talked. Kev likes talking a lot about how the young single adults of the church are a very fragile group (him being one of them). Actually, he just likes talking about the church a lot, but not necessarily in the happy spiritual way. I’m not interested in being anything other than Kevin’s friend and I hope that feeling is mutual. I’m fine having a movie buddy (we laughed at the same parts while no one else was laughing) but I don’t want a holding-hands & kissing during the movie buddy.
In between watching Percy Jackson and going to see Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (Beaucoup de bruit pour rien) in French I made the mistake of cutting my hair. You’d think I’d have learned after the last billion times I’ve cut it, but no. it started with this annoying yellow patch in the front of my hair (from the fantastical fun of trying to bleach out the dark dark brown from last winter) and led to cutting out most of these patches which was a mistake that has left me with lots of bangs and really weird layers. I can still put it in piggy tails and I am really not going to touch it again, I’m going to save that for my wonderful professional hairstylist, Rita. Hopefully I can hide the scissors from myself until July.
I ended up literally running to Much Ado About Nothing because I lost track of time during the hair catastrophe (on the bright side I don’t really have any more of the awkward yellow color left in my hair). It took me a while to find the Autour de Monde people (Around the World, a buddy program at the university) with my ticket, but I found them and took a seat. The play was not what I expected. There were only about fourteen people in the cast total and it had a modern twist. By modern twist I mean no scenery, no old fashioned costumes, cross dressing, air humping, and a boy running around in his boxers (and French boxers are shorter than American ones…eek!). The play was okay. I luckily looked up the story before I left because I didn’t understand anything they said (and I was feeling so good after the movie where I understood everything). I was still entertained and it was worth the experience to see it in France. I think I am understanding more of Shakespeare and his universal themes now that I am older (for instance, the title of the play…I get it now). I got home really late from the play so I just hit the sack afterwards.

Day 165: WWI -> WWII = Mind Blown

12 fevrier 2010 (Day 165)
Today was such a busy day! I woke up earlier to do my laundry at 7:30. While it was washing I made cookies. This recipe went over much better than the first. The shredded coconut here is really fine so the cookies were amazing. Definitely my new favorite cookie recipe here.
After laundry I went to another entertaining sociology of art class. Today we talked about the difference between artists and artisans (the “gift”, being a genius/depressed/crazy, etc.). Hannah and I went to our musculation class afterwards. By musculation, it really just means gym (or at least what we think of as a gym in the US). I haven’t been to the gym since last spring semester! Boy has it been a while. And it was definitely awkward being in a tiny French gym. They had one treadmill, about 5 or 7 bikes, a couple of weight lifting machines (that all looked older than my dad) and tons of rowing machines. Most of the Frenchies there were just doing aerobic stuff, I was kind of disappointed in them (but not surprised, they are all sticks). Hannah and I started off on the bikes. It was so nice to be on a bike, and at the gym. I definitely had a feeling of euphoria, but it made me miss my gym buddy/roomie Emily Anne. I did a couple of stuff with the free-hand weights (I wasn’t brave enough to figure out the medieval weight machines and figure out how much I used to be able to lift on that kind of machine in kilos). I also found my new favorite exercise…rowing. They have a lot of really nice rowing machines at the school gym. I really really really like rowing because it works on all my weak spots…shoulders and the lower back (and even the abs a little). Hannah and I were like excited little puppies on the floor mats stretching and doing yoga. We haven’t had that much moving space in a long time (you have to modify most yoga positions to do it in our prison cells). I appreciate open space and gyms so much. I could do a sunrise salutation without hitting my arms and do spread eagle and head stands. It was super great. I think Hannah and I will be coming back to the gym a lot.
I took a quick shower (at home) and then went to the store to get some food. I ate lunch quickly and then it was off to history. This semester has been interesting, because his style/focus has been a little different. Today’s lesson was mind-blowing though. We talked about la premiere guerre mondiale (WWI). So…causes of the war: increased nationalism, colonial rivalries (colonies = power..top power holders 1. Great Britan 2. France 3. Belgium, PAYS BAS, Germany), and economic competition (due to the industrial revolution) top econ power countries: GB, France, and Germany.
During the first part of the 1900s there was a triple entente (Russia, France, Great Britain) and a triple alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy). In 1914 Italy was seduced by the British to join their side (Italy just wanted the land that had the Italian speaking people on it [what is now Yugoslovia] and the GB said they’d give it to Italy if they helped in the war (though President Wilson said no to this, which made Italy sad which permitted Mussolinni to come to power later on). Anywho, on the 28th of June in 1916 the archduke (heriter of the Austrian-Hungrian throne) Francois Ferdinand was assassinated at Sarajevo by a Slavic person. This obviously ticked Austria off, so they declared war against Serbia. Serbia asked for help from the Russians who have the same history and culture as them. So Russia declared war against Austria-Hungary which led to everyone in the triple alliance and entente to join in because they all had their own little reasons to join in (France wanted to get back its land from Germany, GB wanted to show Germany that GB ruled the see,the Germans wanted to show that they were powerful to the French, Russia wanted to forget about its loss of a ship to Japan in 1905, etc.). So basically WWI, a war that killed 10 million people, started because one guy got killed by a man whose country was friends with Russia.
The US came to help with this ridiculous war in 1917 for economic reasons (and to spread liberty and democracy of course). The armistice to end the war was signed on November 11 in 1918. The question is though, why did Germany surrender when they were still fighting on French territory. Yes, they may have eventually lost, but it isn’t that. It was what happened two days before in Germany. On the 9th of November there was a Marxist revolution at Berlin by the students and workers. They took the power from Emperor Guillome to have more of an anarchist-socialist-communist sort of thing so they wanted to stop the war. This act later allowed a man named Adolf Hitler to say to the Germans, “We didn’t lose the war. The traitors, the socio-commu-anarchists stabbed us in the back. We could have won and we should seek vengeance.” This discourse worked which led to Nazism, which as we know led to World War II. So, if you followed all those arrows. The assassination of one man ended up causing TWO world wars. It is crazy the stuff they don’t teach you in American high schools.
So after class Hannah and I headed to the church to meet our home teachers. While catching the second tram Hannah got on one that was crammed full of people and I was not going to fit in so I waited for the next, less crowded train. We met up with our home teachers at church, well one of them and his little daughter Rosaline. Our other home teacher moved to Versailles. Rosaline was really cute during the lesson, giving us toys and books from the nursery room. The lesson this month was really nice; we talked about Patriarchial blessings.
Institute was great. We had that sub again so I really enjoyed the class. Kev gave Ramond, Hannah, and me a ride home which was really nice because it saved us so much time. I got a time to meet up with Kev to go to the movies tomorrow and then went with Hannah to get a large pot to make cookies in and then I made these amazing cookies!
No Bake Chocolate Cookies

2 C sugar 1/8 tsp salt
1/2 C milk 1/2 C margarine
2 1/2—3 C quick oats 3 TB cocoa
1 tsp vanilla 1 C coconut
1/2 C nuts (optional)
Combine sugar, milk, butter, cocoa, and salt in pan. Bring to boil, stirring. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Drop from teaspoon onto waxed paper and allow to set.

Day 164: I Hate Fantasia, I Like Stravinski, I Love Cookies

11 fevrier 2010 (Day 164)

Class was pretty crazy today. In phonetics-phonology we went over how you produce sounds and we are supposed to memorize how you do all the vowels and all the anatomical names of body parts that help in sound production. I wish I had my Andy Anderson notes… So pretty much it is a crazy hard class. I also don’t know how much I should be studying for my classes because they aren’t like American classes at all and so I have no idea. Hannah and I went to change our SUAPS (sports/gym) cards so that we could go to weight lifting.

We went to a meeting for ISEP in town. Jane had made homemade chocolate chip cookies that were really good. I ate quite a few. I am a cookie addict! This was evidenced by my eating lots of cookies, fantasizing about making cookies during the symphony, and then making cookies that night! The meeting was pretty pointless (other than the cookies). It was also a meeting for the frenchies who are going to America, so we had to sit around listening to that meeting.

The symphony was great. Hannah, Jessica, Kev, and I met up and went together. We were up on the first balcony and listened to Le Sacre du Printemps. They had a really large orchestra this time, and I’m pretty sure my violin playing Robin Hood look alike was there (but I wasn’t close enough to be sure). There were also some musicians who looked so young- like kids my age! They did a great job though and as usual I was enamored by the music and calm and peaceful. This calm peacefulness ended after the intermission. The orchestra started to play some crappy music from Fantasia or something like that where it sounds like a storm and it made all of us girls very agitated and uptight. This agitation led us to walking all the way home. The wait for the next tram was 28 minutes, so we started walking so that we wouldn’t be cold. By the time the tram caught up with us we were only three stops from home, so we decided to walk the rest of the way. It was a really nice evening walk (we got in well before midnight) and helped us all burn off our built up agitation from the last piece. We decided that we girls probably would have left if Kevin wasn’t there. Kevin had a nice time. He is quite the connoisseur of the arts as he enjoys music and plays and such. He is planning on doing a sort of social kind of work where he organizes social stuff and will be traveling all over southern France a lot this summer. He is really pationate about his work and quite assertive. By assertive I mean he always says what he thinks is right or wrong, good or bad. I guess opinionated may be a better word. We had a really interesting discussion about dating in France (he brought up the fragile young single adult group thing again). This is what I gleaned from the conversation. Dating in France is indeed not like dating in the US. You pretty much just ask the girl to hang out and do stuff together. If you REALLY REALLY like her and want to let her know you will offer to pay for one of these said activities (dinner, movie, concert, whatever). If the girl is interested in you, she will accept the offer for you to pay, if not, she declines. So the systems definitely has its advantages and disadvantages. You know for sure when a boy likes you, but you don’t really date. The whole ‘paying’ thing could definitely lead to some awkward dates/circumstances. And some of us don’t have money so we like having the guys pay. Kev was quite insistent that the French way of dating was more magical though and that it is more of a game than dating in the US and that dates don’t have to be all extravagant here. I agree the we go overboard on prom and such, but Kev thinks that it is better to have simple dates so that you really get to know and talk to the person and aren’t dating them because they take you on cool dates (his thoughts, not mine about dating in America). So that was definitely interesting. I don’t know which system I’d prefer, but I don’t know if I would enjoy knowing flat out that a guy really really liked me by him offering to pay.

So I tried making no-bake cookies tonight with nutella instead of peanut butter. Either I put in a tad too much nutella, or they are just too different, but the cookies didn’t work out. The nutella also gave them an odd flavor that I didn’t like at all. I’m planning on trying again tomorrow.

Day 163: Snow in Nantes

Hannah and Jennifer walking to class
10 fevrier 2010 (Day 163)
Good early morning! It was off to school at 8am to French literature. Today class was relatively bearable. It helped that I had a Cadbury egg from Cheryl to eat. It was a chilly day! After class Hannah and I went to the warmest place, the library, (which still required gloves, coats, and scarves) to read for an hour. Afterwards we went to our sociology of cultures class. Today we talked about different ways to classify people and their cultured-ness. There are some pretty interesting theories.
For lunch I went to the Pole Etudiante and got a Panini (that had a spicy hot dog and tomatoes in it…weird!) and a beignet (chocolate filled donut…mmm) for later. I had my Panini, which was surprisingly good while watching these crazy little films the school made. The “lab” for French Lit was actually interesting today. This is manifest by the fact that I don’t have TONS of doodles on my paper and I didn’t look down at my watch too much. I did have the fright of my life when my phone started vibrating though.
It turned out to be the missionaries, so I called them back when I was done with class. It was Elder Bourgeois who had called and he just wanted to say (after he made me wait for a minute) that he met some people who knew me (best part was that I don’t know who he was talking about) and that he know has the girl’s phone number. I made fun of him for that because of how he said it. He then passed me off to Elder Maxfield because Elder B. was getting on the bus (I’m confused too) and Elder M. asked how I was, who called who, and apologized because he had no idea what Elder B. and I had been talking about. It was all really funny. Elder Maxfield asked Elder Bourgeois if he still needed to talk to me (no) so Elder Maxfield and I said goodbye and hung up.
Hannah and I went for a long run today! It was great. She showed me this forest/park/trails everywhere awesome place and it even started snowing! We ran for about 40 minutes and it felt so good. It was nice to go with someone to have them push me. It felt so good outside and you could feel all the seasons mixing into each other. It was fantastic!
While I was eating dinner before going to the symphony, I talked to Pierrick, my YSA dancing friend from Rennes. He loves kids and wants to be a pediatrician. He figured this out after helping his mom take care of his five siblings after his parents divorced. He also likes to try to make me laugh. We are planning on hanging out sometime, but we live 60 miles away, so it will take some hardcore planning. It was a crazy conversation because it was all just a seamless mélange of French and English (from both parties). Talk about mind blowing!
I went to the symphony. I met Kev at Commerce and Hannah and several others were behind. We got there too late so we didn’t get tickets. We do have tickets for tomorrow night though. I feel badly that we all went all that way to have been too late. It is odd because the symphony wasn’t as popular at the beginning but there were loads of people there tonight. It was alright though because I saw my favorite fellow non-Mormon-but-loves-Mormons Utahn Igor. He is a tall gangly half French half who knows what, has lived everywhere but loves Salt Lake City and is now living in France guy. He is a sweetheart and is planning on coming to the next burrito fest!

Day 162: Abe McKay!

Changing my computer...I thought it was cool.
Elder Abe McKay and I
Messy Elder Bourgeois


9 fevrier 2010 (Day 162)
Today I woke up, did my morning routine (yay for being back to my morning routine) and went for a nice relaxing 30 minute run before breakfast. It wasn’t too chilly outside and I took a nice slow pace (though I’m sure my calves will let me hear about it later anyway). I scared the cleaning lady half to death when I asked her if I could use the microwave to warm up my oatmeal this morning. I guess she was lost in her thoughts or too busy listening to the radio to notice that I had come in the kitchen and was asking if it was okay for me to use the microwave.
I had great plans to finish my to do list today. I did get some of it done. Then I got distracted. It was definitely a good distraction though. I was updating anti-virus stuff on my computer and ended up discovering a cool dashboard tool for Vista and changing the whole entire layout of my computer and I discovered google chrome, and the new version of firefox, which you can customize. Regardless, I probably spent too much time playing, but I have never been more excited about how cool and slick my computer looks now.
I took a nap because I wasn’t feeling very motivated to continue on with my to do list. I originally set my alarm for 20 minutes and then I turned it off, only to wake up much later then intended. I changed quickly and ran out the door so that I could get a ticket for a play on Saturday and then go learn how to make burrito shells.
My timing was perfect because the elders had started to make the burritos late. I learned from the masters and am now a flour-y, but professional burrito shell maker. Elder Abe McKay from dear old Davis High was there with his companion so we caught up while we made around 100 burrito shells. It was so great to Abe. He is doing great and speaks French perfectly (Quinton liked to tell me this and was asking why he speaks like a French person and I don’t). Elder Bourgeois said Elder Smiley was asking how I was doing. I hesitated, because I still have my cold and Elder B. was just like say yes. He really wants you to have a testimony of the priesthood. So I told him that I was much better than Wednesday and Thursday (which is true). This answer sufficed. Personally, I think I have more of a testimony of God’s sense of humor. The members really slacked on bringing burrito supplies this month, so the missionaries had to go out and buy a lot of stuff, so we started late. The turnout was so-so but we had a nice time. Cheryl and Isabel were being super crazy tonight though. Cheryl also got mad at me for speaking to her in French. It is kind of frustrating, really frustrating, that they pretty much refuse to speak French unless necessary. The language is why I am here! Someone brought crepes and so after stuffing ourselves with burritos it was on to the crepes. I made it through two burritos and one crepe then went to do the dishes. Help surprisingly arrived and we got the missionaries sent off (they had a car…luck) at a decent hour. Those of us taking the tram (Cheryl and Kev) were not so lucky. We had to wait in the freezing cold for 20 minutes for the tram. During the ride we talked about missions/missionary rules because Cheryl doesn’t think that the current missionaries in Nantes follow all the rules. It was an interesting conversation. I had to wait around by myself at commerce for around 10 minutes. There was some creepster hitting on this girl, so I moved as far away as possible. On the tram that same girl ended up sitting by me and creepy man ended up following. I had already had a bad feeling about how this tram ride was going to be (but I wasn’t going to wait 26 minutes for the next tram) and it was indeed interesting. The girl was talking on her phone and the guy was saying all these crazy things like you need protection, I will protect you, I know you, you are afraid but I won’t hurt you and he followed her off and was like, “Look at that beautiful body!” “Ciao bella!” Yeah. Weird. The lady sitting across from me agreed, as did some other passengers who talked about it once they left.