18 mars 2010 (Day 199)
Nothing too exciting today. Except that I learned that you can make ice packs from dish washing soap. Or jell-o. That way you can pick your favorite color (and flavor).
My mind was definitely trashed after phonetics today. Ali was teaching us about what a sound is, how we hear, how the ear works, how sound waves work and harmonics and all of this crazy stuff with watts and pascals and it made my brain hurt. And my foot was hurting as well. It was quite swollen and making me not happy. The missionaries noticed this because I was rather curt when they called to remind me about our RDV with Han today. Thank heavens for prayer and ibuprofen.
I got to the church before the missionaries (as usual) so I hopped the fence and sat on the grass and read while I waited. They came around and opened the gate, asked me why I was a grumpy bum and helped me get up and freaked out the rest of the day about any movements that I made. I did get a kiss though (don’t worry…one made out of sugar) and I was in a much better mood by the time Han got there. We had a really good lesson with her.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Day 198: Run Forest Run (just not on a rolled ankle)
17 mars 2010 (Day 198)
St. Patrick’s Day is not celebrated by Frenchies. You could find all the Americans today though because we were wearing green. Today class was bearable and Hannah and I went home and had lunch in her kitchen. It was nice. I was really tired after class though (French lit exhausts me and my brain) so I took a nap before I went running. I decided to run to the Japanese Garden. There were a billion people there. Sadly I was dumb and stumbled on some cobblestone while crossing the street/tram tracks/trying not to run into this lady that was in my way. I sprained my ankle. And naturally I was stupid and I kept running on it. It is now swollen. This was not smart of me. I did have some funny person yell, “Run Forest Run” at me in French. It was amusing because I never thought I would hear that in France.
I had some potato gratin with green beans that I bought at E.Leclerc to celebrate St. Patrick. Darryl and Cole were in the kitchen and they entertained me as always. I love having the homework bug! As J.M. Barrie said, “Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.”
St. Patrick’s Day is not celebrated by Frenchies. You could find all the Americans today though because we were wearing green. Today class was bearable and Hannah and I went home and had lunch in her kitchen. It was nice. I was really tired after class though (French lit exhausts me and my brain) so I took a nap before I went running. I decided to run to the Japanese Garden. There were a billion people there. Sadly I was dumb and stumbled on some cobblestone while crossing the street/tram tracks/trying not to run into this lady that was in my way. I sprained my ankle. And naturally I was stupid and I kept running on it. It is now swollen. This was not smart of me. I did have some funny person yell, “Run Forest Run” at me in French. It was amusing because I never thought I would hear that in France.
I had some potato gratin with green beans that I bought at E.Leclerc to celebrate St. Patrick. Darryl and Cole were in the kitchen and they entertained me as always. I love having the homework bug! As J.M. Barrie said, “Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.”
Day 197: St. Pat's a Day Early
16 mars 2010 (Day 197)
Today was a pretty good day. It started with my most amazing breakfast. I decided to eat at the Café Nicolas by my house for St. Pat’s because I couldn’t find any Lucky Charms. I know that today wasn’t St. Patrick’s day, but classes start at 8am tomorrow and I wanted to enjoy this breakfast and enjoy it I did. It was around 5,50E for a giant mug of hot chocolate, fresh squeezed orange juice, a pain au chocolat, and a demi-baguette with butter and peach jam. I enjoyed it so much that I was practically walking on the clouds when I walked out of the café. Sadly breakfast didn’t agree with me so well at the gym so I didn’t have the greatest gym day. I had a nice quiet lunch in the kitchen (some of the pasta salad I created yesterday) while I listened in vain trying to understand the other people in the kitchen speak Chinese. I didn’t understand a word, lol. Jen was a peach and got me a bandaid for my infected grocery bagging cut which I told the elders I got whilst flipping someone off and they pulled out a knife and sliced my finger. I thought it was a good story even though it wasn’t true.
It was a perfectly beautiful day today and I did homework! I love it, I actually wanted to do homework. To make life happier, I found a shortcut to church that takes only 20-30 minutes instead of the 45-60 minutes. Wahoo me!! Today the only student at English with the missionaries was Claudine (in the level that I teach) so we just had a one-on-one class and learned different vegetables. The missionaries were teaching the higher level some funny things (they were just off to the side of us this week). My favorite was teasing Elder Knapp that he was a genius because only 5% of applicants get accepted into UPenn. Claudine (Paki and Gaelle’s mom- they are from Madagascar) asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said no, Elder Knapp said that he lives in Rennes (the turd) but they ended up believing me and Claudine decided that I have baby soft arms. It was awkward, lol. Elder Knapp showed me a cute picture of his best friend who he wants to be his girlfriend who is serving a mission right now. They met because he had to kiss her in a play and they have been best friends since, ha ha. I learned that Elder Lazarev likes Thrice, which surprises me. There was a mad lady on the tram (I guess I accidentally ran into her with my bag) and some creepy Middle-Eastern guys sat by Hannah and I on the way home. We were speaking in English (though we have been doing good lately at speaking in French) and they said they liked my hair better with my hat off and then were asking us why we were talking in English if we knew French because they didn’t understand a word. We got off at the next stop to say the least.
Today was a pretty good day. It started with my most amazing breakfast. I decided to eat at the Café Nicolas by my house for St. Pat’s because I couldn’t find any Lucky Charms. I know that today wasn’t St. Patrick’s day, but classes start at 8am tomorrow and I wanted to enjoy this breakfast and enjoy it I did. It was around 5,50E for a giant mug of hot chocolate, fresh squeezed orange juice, a pain au chocolat, and a demi-baguette with butter and peach jam. I enjoyed it so much that I was practically walking on the clouds when I walked out of the café. Sadly breakfast didn’t agree with me so well at the gym so I didn’t have the greatest gym day. I had a nice quiet lunch in the kitchen (some of the pasta salad I created yesterday) while I listened in vain trying to understand the other people in the kitchen speak Chinese. I didn’t understand a word, lol. Jen was a peach and got me a bandaid for my infected grocery bagging cut which I told the elders I got whilst flipping someone off and they pulled out a knife and sliced my finger. I thought it was a good story even though it wasn’t true.
It was a perfectly beautiful day today and I did homework! I love it, I actually wanted to do homework. To make life happier, I found a shortcut to church that takes only 20-30 minutes instead of the 45-60 minutes. Wahoo me!! Today the only student at English with the missionaries was Claudine (in the level that I teach) so we just had a one-on-one class and learned different vegetables. The missionaries were teaching the higher level some funny things (they were just off to the side of us this week). My favorite was teasing Elder Knapp that he was a genius because only 5% of applicants get accepted into UPenn. Claudine (Paki and Gaelle’s mom- they are from Madagascar) asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said no, Elder Knapp said that he lives in Rennes (the turd) but they ended up believing me and Claudine decided that I have baby soft arms. It was awkward, lol. Elder Knapp showed me a cute picture of his best friend who he wants to be his girlfriend who is serving a mission right now. They met because he had to kiss her in a play and they have been best friends since, ha ha. I learned that Elder Lazarev likes Thrice, which surprises me. There was a mad lady on the tram (I guess I accidentally ran into her with my bag) and some creepy Middle-Eastern guys sat by Hannah and I on the way home. We were speaking in English (though we have been doing good lately at speaking in French) and they said they liked my hair better with my hat off and then were asking us why we were talking in English if we knew French because they didn’t understand a word. We got off at the next stop to say the least.
Day 196: Creepy Texts
15 mars 2010 (Day 196)
So I woke up to some creepy texts this morning. For about the past two weeks some random number that is not French has been texting me. They have been texts like, “Hey, how are you? I hope everything is going well. I’m thinking of you. I miss you too much. What are you doing now? Big kisses Nhbek= love you. Call me.” This morning I got a text that went like this (translated): “Salam. It’s me, Haikel your favorite vendor. I’m in Tunisia but I can’t stop thinking about you. I miss you. Kisses nhbek (I love you in Arabic).” Um wow. Wasn’t that a nice wake up. It definitely stressed me out and I didn’t know what to say, so I did what I do best, I cooked. I went to E.Leclerc to grab some food and then I cooked this pasta and boiled eggs and kept myself occupied until it was time to go to the gym. Hannah is a genius and texted Haikel a blunt message for me while we were biking saying that he must have misunderstood me because I don’t like him like that and asking him to stop calling me at 1am because I am sleeping then. He texted back a while later and said, “Sorry if I bother you. Briefly, I won’t call you anymore. Excuse me for bothering you. You hurt me…” Oh boy. I’m sure he’ll get over it. I know I did because Hannah and I did some awesome abs and then I showered and made some amazing curry with avocado, chick peas, onion, and tomatoes.
My SWEET OF THE WEEK was this amazing chocolate verrine. It was basically layered chocolate pudding, chocolate mousse, and raspberries and it was divine. I think it is probably the best thing that I have tasted here.
For the rest of the day…nothing to exciting. I made some hot chocolate, made a lot of to do lists, did laundry and thought about what I need to do!
So I woke up to some creepy texts this morning. For about the past two weeks some random number that is not French has been texting me. They have been texts like, “Hey, how are you? I hope everything is going well. I’m thinking of you. I miss you too much. What are you doing now? Big kisses Nhbek= love you. Call me.” This morning I got a text that went like this (translated): “Salam. It’s me, Haikel your favorite vendor. I’m in Tunisia but I can’t stop thinking about you. I miss you. Kisses nhbek (I love you in Arabic).” Um wow. Wasn’t that a nice wake up. It definitely stressed me out and I didn’t know what to say, so I did what I do best, I cooked. I went to E.Leclerc to grab some food and then I cooked this pasta and boiled eggs and kept myself occupied until it was time to go to the gym. Hannah is a genius and texted Haikel a blunt message for me while we were biking saying that he must have misunderstood me because I don’t like him like that and asking him to stop calling me at 1am because I am sleeping then. He texted back a while later and said, “Sorry if I bother you. Briefly, I won’t call you anymore. Excuse me for bothering you. You hurt me…” Oh boy. I’m sure he’ll get over it. I know I did because Hannah and I did some awesome abs and then I showered and made some amazing curry with avocado, chick peas, onion, and tomatoes.
My SWEET OF THE WEEK was this amazing chocolate verrine. It was basically layered chocolate pudding, chocolate mousse, and raspberries and it was divine. I think it is probably the best thing that I have tasted here.
For the rest of the day…nothing to exciting. I made some hot chocolate, made a lot of to do lists, did laundry and thought about what I need to do!
Day 195: Church in Rennes
14 mars 2010 (Day 195)
I love feather blankets. Europeans don’t believe in heating. The only downside is I eventually get warm and then when I wake up I am all sweaty. Luckily I got to shower before church. We just had cereal and drove about 20 minutes to church. And church was well, normal. They were super organized and it felt a lot like being at church in Utah. It definitely lacked the drama of Nantes ward with someone disagreeing with whomever is giving the lesson. I met this super duper tall girl that is from USU. She doesn’t know French very well and seemed to not have many friends. I felt really bad for her. She is the only girl in a Sunday school class filled with crazy boys. There is a missionary from Madagascar serving in Rennes and he is the best pianist I have ever heard. He had about half the congregation crying. He played so beautifully and you could just really feel that his spirit was in the music. It was amazing. After church I waited around for Pierrick after he had some meeting and then we had spaghetti with a ham and sour cream sauce with an egg yolk on top! We had dessert with a bunch of the boys because the YSA (Young Single Adults) or JA (Jeune Adultes) in French watched the fireside together. After our warm kind of apple pie (it was a tarte) with lots and lots of canned whipped cream we played Scum (which is called President in France). It was a lot of fun and the fireside was good. We dropped off my fellow Aggie at her dorm and I realized how grateful I am to live in renovated Cite Fresche Blanc.
Once home Pierrick decided it would be great to make fun of me by working on me with phonetics. I learned a lot, but he definitely enjoyed it more than I did. He thought I was hilarious because I make faces. We started cooking a quiche when we realized it was getting late-ish but switched to frozen Chinese food when we realized that I wouldn’t be able to cook it before I had to leave to catch my train home. We scarfed down our yummy Chinese and then zoomed off to the train station. I got a message from the missionaries saying that Han is going to be baptized in two weeks! I called them back and they told me how they had Anthony come and how he really knows that the church is true and that he bore his testimony and that the spirit was so strong that they just had to ask her again if she will be baptized and she said yes! I told them they should just have Anthony with them all the time because that is just so great! They asked when I was getting back so that they could set up a RDV (meeting) with Han. I told them that I was coming home then. Elder Knapp asked how (by train?) and I said no, by camel. Seriously, how else would I get home silly! I almost didn’t make my tram though. I jumped out of the car without even giving Pierrick bisous because I had 5 minutes until the train was leaving and I didn’t have a ticket! I got a ticket and ran down and got on the train just in time. I made it! Elder Knapp called back to confirm a RDV time with Han, made fun of my camel comment and ended the conversation with another one of his before this gets awkward jokes. I got home safe and sound and even didn’t have to wait long for the trams! I did end up staying up late talking to Matt the perfect though…oops!
I love feather blankets. Europeans don’t believe in heating. The only downside is I eventually get warm and then when I wake up I am all sweaty. Luckily I got to shower before church. We just had cereal and drove about 20 minutes to church. And church was well, normal. They were super organized and it felt a lot like being at church in Utah. It definitely lacked the drama of Nantes ward with someone disagreeing with whomever is giving the lesson. I met this super duper tall girl that is from USU. She doesn’t know French very well and seemed to not have many friends. I felt really bad for her. She is the only girl in a Sunday school class filled with crazy boys. There is a missionary from Madagascar serving in Rennes and he is the best pianist I have ever heard. He had about half the congregation crying. He played so beautifully and you could just really feel that his spirit was in the music. It was amazing. After church I waited around for Pierrick after he had some meeting and then we had spaghetti with a ham and sour cream sauce with an egg yolk on top! We had dessert with a bunch of the boys because the YSA (Young Single Adults) or JA (Jeune Adultes) in French watched the fireside together. After our warm kind of apple pie (it was a tarte) with lots and lots of canned whipped cream we played Scum (which is called President in France). It was a lot of fun and the fireside was good. We dropped off my fellow Aggie at her dorm and I realized how grateful I am to live in renovated Cite Fresche Blanc.
Once home Pierrick decided it would be great to make fun of me by working on me with phonetics. I learned a lot, but he definitely enjoyed it more than I did. He thought I was hilarious because I make faces. We started cooking a quiche when we realized it was getting late-ish but switched to frozen Chinese food when we realized that I wouldn’t be able to cook it before I had to leave to catch my train home. We scarfed down our yummy Chinese and then zoomed off to the train station. I got a message from the missionaries saying that Han is going to be baptized in two weeks! I called them back and they told me how they had Anthony come and how he really knows that the church is true and that he bore his testimony and that the spirit was so strong that they just had to ask her again if she will be baptized and she said yes! I told them they should just have Anthony with them all the time because that is just so great! They asked when I was getting back so that they could set up a RDV (meeting) with Han. I told them that I was coming home then. Elder Knapp asked how (by train?) and I said no, by camel. Seriously, how else would I get home silly! I almost didn’t make my tram though. I jumped out of the car without even giving Pierrick bisous because I had 5 minutes until the train was leaving and I didn’t have a ticket! I got a ticket and ran down and got on the train just in time. I made it! Elder Knapp called back to confirm a RDV time with Han, made fun of my camel comment and ended the conversation with another one of his before this gets awkward jokes. I got home safe and sound and even didn’t have to wait long for the trams! I did end up staying up late talking to Matt the perfect though…oops!
Day 194: Rennes with Pierrick
13 mars 2010 (Day 194)
Life lesson learned. Don’t watch basketball games when you need to catch a tram. You will miss the tram. It was quite tragic. I was so enthralled with the game that I was watching that I lost track of time and ran down and just barely missed the tram. I then had 40 minutes until my train at a train station that was a 50 minute brisk walk away. I half walked half ran and made it in 35 minutes but I lost my scarf along the way and my legs were don’t at all happy with me. I was also drenched in sweat. I had a quick train switch in this tiny town where I walked around for 10 or 15 minutes and grabbed a pain au chocolat (all that exercise in the early morning made me hungry!). Pierrick met me in Rennes at the train station. We then drove to his house that is outside of Rennes more in the country and he showed me around. His mom is really nice and they have a cute house. Pierrick and I went to the store to go shopping (two stores actually) to get food for cooking. Pierrick is such a goof. He was making such a scene in the store and kept on losing things. He is such a space cadet. Happily he is an amazing cook. After we stopped by a patisserie to get chocolate éclairs (and an unplanned efrasier [kind of like strawberry shortcake with a different pastry]) Pierrick whipped up this delicious concoction that included boiled potatoes, sour cream, zucchini, and tomatoes.
After lunch we went into the city and walked around. Some of the older buildings are so gorgeous. My favorite part of Rennes was this quarter with really old buildings that were crooked with exposed wood. It is apparently the place for college kids to hang out Thursday nights. I don’t blame them. The rest of Rennes is kind of really ugly. We did go into a couple of really nice parks though. One had a garden with all sorts of plants. At the park we talked a lot about the girl that he likes and has liked for about three years. It is really tender because he really really loves her. He also defaults into English when he talks about her (I don’t know why). He continued to tell me about his hopeless romanticism as we warmed up these almost mini-pancake like things that you eat with smoked salmon or this fish egg paste. It was pretty good. After dinner we watched this weird movie with his mom that was really old with Bruce Willis who was a master at breaking into things. I found it kind of dumb, but to each his own. I stayed in his sister’s cute room. They are a really spiritual family though. And his mom said lots of funny stuff. She kept teasing that I needed to visit more because Pierrick cleaned and all this jazz.
Life lesson learned. Don’t watch basketball games when you need to catch a tram. You will miss the tram. It was quite tragic. I was so enthralled with the game that I was watching that I lost track of time and ran down and just barely missed the tram. I then had 40 minutes until my train at a train station that was a 50 minute brisk walk away. I half walked half ran and made it in 35 minutes but I lost my scarf along the way and my legs were don’t at all happy with me. I was also drenched in sweat. I had a quick train switch in this tiny town where I walked around for 10 or 15 minutes and grabbed a pain au chocolat (all that exercise in the early morning made me hungry!). Pierrick met me in Rennes at the train station. We then drove to his house that is outside of Rennes more in the country and he showed me around. His mom is really nice and they have a cute house. Pierrick and I went to the store to go shopping (two stores actually) to get food for cooking. Pierrick is such a goof. He was making such a scene in the store and kept on losing things. He is such a space cadet. Happily he is an amazing cook. After we stopped by a patisserie to get chocolate éclairs (and an unplanned efrasier [kind of like strawberry shortcake with a different pastry]) Pierrick whipped up this delicious concoction that included boiled potatoes, sour cream, zucchini, and tomatoes.
After lunch we went into the city and walked around. Some of the older buildings are so gorgeous. My favorite part of Rennes was this quarter with really old buildings that were crooked with exposed wood. It is apparently the place for college kids to hang out Thursday nights. I don’t blame them. The rest of Rennes is kind of really ugly. We did go into a couple of really nice parks though. One had a garden with all sorts of plants. At the park we talked a lot about the girl that he likes and has liked for about three years. It is really tender because he really really loves her. He also defaults into English when he talks about her (I don’t know why). He continued to tell me about his hopeless romanticism as we warmed up these almost mini-pancake like things that you eat with smoked salmon or this fish egg paste. It was pretty good. After dinner we watched this weird movie with his mom that was really old with Bruce Willis who was a master at breaking into things. I found it kind of dumb, but to each his own. I stayed in his sister’s cute room. They are a really spiritual family though. And his mom said lots of funny stuff. She kept teasing that I needed to visit more because Pierrick cleaned and all this jazz.
Day 192: Baking Brownies for Bourgeois' Birthday
11 mars 2010 (Day 192)
I just remembered why I haven’t tried to bake in France (or cook more technical things in general). After my classes and running today I met up with Cheryl at her house/Anne and Yves to make brownies for Elder Bourgeois’ birthday (which is on Monday). I toted all the ingredients to their cute little house and they even had an electric hand mixer (woot!). The batter tasted delicious and was just frankly divine. I should have just given Elder B the batter because the oven was a disaster. They didn’t have any rectangle pans so I had to use two quiche pans. Since I was splitting the batter I decided to not follow the directions and put the chocolate chips in first because I figured that would be easier for if I accidentally poured too many of Cheryl’s chopped up chocolate bits. In retrospect this was a mistake. All the chocolate melted and made a nice burnt crust. So Cheryl didn’t remember how to work the oven and I had no idea how so we asked Yves. He helped us get it turned on and I stuck in the first pan and started my timer. 30 minutes later they still weren’t done. 10 minutes later. Still not done. Another 10. And another. After 90 minutes of “baking” Anne came home and was like you don’t have the bottom burner on (mind you this “oven” is not a real oven. Or even an excuse. It doesn’t even fully shut…there are lots of air spaces. Long story short we got the brownies baked but burnt so they turned out more like cake. I then used my inherited mad frosting making skills after Yves sliced off the burnt and made one of the cakes look edible. Cheryl cooked me some nice chicken stew and we decorated the cake and then I met Elder Bourgeois and his companion and gave him his birthday cake. Apparently the Elders devoured it because it was gone the next morning (they got it around 9:30pm….and we started at 5pm!).
Day 193: Baby Seth is Born
12 mars 2010 (Day 193)
Today was a relatively normal Friday. I had class and our teacher was hilarious as always (stories about people singing in the toilet this week), Hannah and I worked hard at the gym, had my mind blown yet again learning more about the extreme right and left back in the 20s “In politics there are divorces sometimes” and WWII when we all accepted the inacceptable because we wanted peace. World Wars are definitely more exciting (and shocking) when they aren’t from the view of American schoolbooks. I got some hot chocolate after class to chillax a little bit and it was delicious. Florien had her baby boy today, whom she named ‘Seth.’ Sad thing is the French pronounce it [set] which is how you say the number seven, so he has already been teased. The Elders called and asked me for the basketball score (again). I also asked them if they knew of any service project s for Hannah because she wants to do something. At that moment someone yelled, “Elder Bourgeois!” which made it really funny. I guess he had thrown the exercise ball and it almost hit someone but it was a lot funnier with the Hannah needs to do service ELDER BOURGEOIS!! Comment. Bless their hearts. After institute there was a party at Anthony’s but I didn’t go because I had to pack to go to Rennes!
Today was a relatively normal Friday. I had class and our teacher was hilarious as always (stories about people singing in the toilet this week), Hannah and I worked hard at the gym, had my mind blown yet again learning more about the extreme right and left back in the 20s “In politics there are divorces sometimes” and WWII when we all accepted the inacceptable because we wanted peace. World Wars are definitely more exciting (and shocking) when they aren’t from the view of American schoolbooks. I got some hot chocolate after class to chillax a little bit and it was delicious. Florien had her baby boy today, whom she named ‘Seth.’ Sad thing is the French pronounce it [set] which is how you say the number seven, so he has already been teased. The Elders called and asked me for the basketball score (again). I also asked them if they knew of any service project s for Hannah because she wants to do something. At that moment someone yelled, “Elder Bourgeois!” which made it really funny. I guess he had thrown the exercise ball and it almost hit someone but it was a lot funnier with the Hannah needs to do service ELDER BOURGEOIS!! Comment. Bless their hearts. After institute there was a party at Anthony’s but I didn’t go because I had to pack to go to Rennes!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Day 191: Sleepy day with cravings
10 mars 2010 (Day 191)
Man Hannah and I were too pooped to pop this morning! Apparently all that laughing and socializing and burrito eating wore us out. We struggled to stay awake in another pointless (I’m sorry…it was) French Lit class. I really don’t understand why he just tells us random names. He is so hard to follow because he goes on these odd tangents and even the French kids don’t follow. We went back home and both had our own individual simultaneous carb fests before going to culture class. We struggled to stay awake in this class as well even though normally it is really easy to pay attention in. Luckily he ended class early so Hannah and I both went back home again and took naps. I fell asleep pretty fast and was sad to wake up. Hannah and I both stayed awake and survived the embarrassment of having to read in front of all of our French lit TD class. During class we decided that we wanted mac and cheese. And learned that we need to learn French more/not be sleeping. We thought our teacher was saying “idiot” instead of “camp” today. I didn’t catch on for over an hour, lol. Hannah also didn’t know that we were talking about epiphany for about 10 minutes. We went up to talk to our teacher about what to do for grades and he just looked at us and then left. He had even talked to other students before us so we were like in the line. This was odd, and funny.
Hannah and I went on a great run (great being Hannah is still in a hilarious mood) and talked about boys. Hannah tried to convince me that I should marry Maxfield because he is rich, even though she says he looks like a rhino, lol. We then decided that Bourgeois looks like a donkey and Lazarev like a puppy. We couldn’t figure out what animal Knapp looks like. I’m still voting for caterpillar though. Hannah ended up tackling me on our run and we are just really getting along lately and having fun. It is a good thing (although she shall never replace the Three Musketeers. Ever. We are timeless.). I’m glad that we are getting along more and bonding. I’m starting to understand Hannah and her awkward ways (she is obsessed with bodies, lol).
I made some delish Mexican rice (tomatos + brown rice + tomato paste with some meat) for dinner. Then the chocolate craving came. I’ve been having the munchies a lot lately (increased working out?? Hopefully I will stop munching so I can lose my French 15!) but this one was irrepressible so I ran to the grocery store (it closes at 7:30 and it was 7:00). I was planning on getting chocolate pudding but in my unsuccessful hunt for cookie dough I found ice cream cups that were cheaper and had less calories then the pudding. Needless to say I got the ice cream. And ate two of them. It was worth it. Now I just need to stop munching, lol. I was going to do homework (I swear mom) but catching up on journaling took two hours (what can I say, I had an exciting Tuesday).
Man Hannah and I were too pooped to pop this morning! Apparently all that laughing and socializing and burrito eating wore us out. We struggled to stay awake in another pointless (I’m sorry…it was) French Lit class. I really don’t understand why he just tells us random names. He is so hard to follow because he goes on these odd tangents and even the French kids don’t follow. We went back home and both had our own individual simultaneous carb fests before going to culture class. We struggled to stay awake in this class as well even though normally it is really easy to pay attention in. Luckily he ended class early so Hannah and I both went back home again and took naps. I fell asleep pretty fast and was sad to wake up. Hannah and I both stayed awake and survived the embarrassment of having to read in front of all of our French lit TD class. During class we decided that we wanted mac and cheese. And learned that we need to learn French more/not be sleeping. We thought our teacher was saying “idiot” instead of “camp” today. I didn’t catch on for over an hour, lol. Hannah also didn’t know that we were talking about epiphany for about 10 minutes. We went up to talk to our teacher about what to do for grades and he just looked at us and then left. He had even talked to other students before us so we were like in the line. This was odd, and funny.
Hannah and I went on a great run (great being Hannah is still in a hilarious mood) and talked about boys. Hannah tried to convince me that I should marry Maxfield because he is rich, even though she says he looks like a rhino, lol. We then decided that Bourgeois looks like a donkey and Lazarev like a puppy. We couldn’t figure out what animal Knapp looks like. I’m still voting for caterpillar though. Hannah ended up tackling me on our run and we are just really getting along lately and having fun. It is a good thing (although she shall never replace the Three Musketeers. Ever. We are timeless.). I’m glad that we are getting along more and bonding. I’m starting to understand Hannah and her awkward ways (she is obsessed with bodies, lol).
I made some delish Mexican rice (tomatos + brown rice + tomato paste with some meat) for dinner. Then the chocolate craving came. I’ve been having the munchies a lot lately (increased working out?? Hopefully I will stop munching so I can lose my French 15!) but this one was irrepressible so I ran to the grocery store (it closes at 7:30 and it was 7:00). I was planning on getting chocolate pudding but in my unsuccessful hunt for cookie dough I found ice cream cups that were cheaper and had less calories then the pudding. Needless to say I got the ice cream. And ate two of them. It was worth it. Now I just need to stop munching, lol. I was going to do homework (I swear mom) but catching up on journaling took two hours (what can I say, I had an exciting Tuesday).
Day 190: Funniest Tuesday Ever
9 mars 2010 (Day 190)
I was so so so tired on my run today. I can’t believe how sore I am either. I went to the gym after my run and worked out my arms. Guess who benched 45 kilos! Yay for me. I even got some homework done and sent my demand for a carte de sejour (what lets me be here legally). You see, they lost the one I sent in September. I won’t complain here, but long story short, it is dumb!
I had a great afternoon/evening/night. Hannah and I went off to visit teach Cheryl at the church about modesty. We were both really nervous about it because it can be a touchy subject. Hannah was also in a really funny mood so everything out of her mouth was hilarious. She told me about this time her sister told her brother to give his unibrow back to Bert from Sesame Street and then threw some scriptures at him and hit him in the head! When we got to the church we went to go to the bathroom and we were going to have a quick prayer in there since the missionaries were being noisy making tortillas. Hannah attempted to say it but she started cracking up and then I was laughing and we both ended up laughing so hard and so much that we were both crying. Mind you, this was in the bathroom and the kitchen is by the bathroom. Elder Bourgeois imitated Hannah’s laugh (we were that loud) which only made us laugh more. We made it out of the bathroom (eventually) rather tear and giggle free. Cheryl was running late so Hannah went to play the piano and I helped the Elders by making some tortilla dough. Another funny story! I was showing Knapp the bruise on my arm from him (he denies it) and told Elder Lazarev it was okay because I had a raspberry from him from soccer. Elder Bourgeois was frying tortillas, turned and said, “Knapp you gave her a raspberry?!” “No it wasn’t me, it was Lazarev.” “Me, not like that!” (Bourgeois was indicating the blowing on someone’s belly farting noise raspberry). Do you see how important communication is?
When Cheryl came we went into a room and started the lesson. Other then Quinton trying to disturb us it went really great. We all learned so much about modesty and Cheryl not wants to dress more modestly and it just all went over really well. The lesson was an hour long, so by the time we were done the burrito fun was about to begin.
I went into the kitchen to help prepare stuff. Paki’s mom told someone I was Swedish and that I lived at IKEA…it was so funny. I also told Elder Knapp about my dream where he pretty much turned into a vampire at church and then told me that it was true and that I should watch out next week, lol. Zeng Chao called and told me that he was coming and bringing a friend, which is so awesome because he told Elder Lazarev that he wasn’t going to come. He came and socialized with a lot of people and ended up talking with his friend and Elder Lazarev about the gospel (after we all ate) until about 10pm!
I sat by Cheryl, Cheryl’s friend from New York (who graduated from Yale…cool!), some crazy older gentleman that Elder Lazarev randomly invited, and Elder Knapp. Elder Knapp and I talked a lot to the random investigator. I don’t remember his name, so let’s just call him Congo because that is where he is from. He seemed like a pretty serious man but we had fun talking to him. Elder Knapp and I started this little battle of the witty stabs in this conversation. Naturally Congo likes playing soccer so I add that Elder Knapp is great at playing soccer and he later stabs back that I’m a super player or something ridiculous and false like that. I was impressed though because Knapp knows a lot about Congo (the parts of the country, the food, languages, etc.). He has apparently gleaned all this from talking to other Congans. I found out that Elder Knapp likes fencing (go figure…it is such a mind game and he goes to UPenn). Other random things learnt about the missionaries…Elder Lazarev is going to do ROTC, goes to BYU but has never been to SLC and Elder Maxfield is apparently very very rich. He lives in the same city as Hannah and so she figured it out when they told each other where they lived. Back to Congo. I’m not sure about the vibes that I got from him. He seemed kind of nice though because he invited Elder Knapp and I to come to dinner one night. We both simultaneously said, “Yes, I’d like to.” (In retrospect I should have said WE’d love to….see story below). I was trying to get Congo to commit to coming to church on Sunday and he was asking if he’d see me, to which I had to say no, because I will be at a friend’s and going to church there. He was telling me that I could ask Elder Knapp though if I came and prayed to God and that that would be totally fine with him. Just how this part of the conversation went made me think that Congo thought we were married…oh man. People. Hannah and I had a ward member ask us if we were sister missionaries. I was finally sassy this time (like I always am in my head) and said, “Have you ever seen us with nametags on?” Honestly people, I wasn’t even wearing THE skirt this time!
Have I ever mentioned that Kev sounds terrible when he speaks English, because he does. The intonation is awful and he says things really awkwardly with how he says everything. Needless to say it is starting to annoy me. I had my bangs down today and he would not let it go (I swear he has a thing with hair…he was obsessed with Hannah’s one Sunday). I told him multiple times that I didn’t cut it or do anything different to it, that it was the same hair. He told me that it looked better…which was then covered up with a quick “nice.” BURN! I was laughing though that he was telling me that he didn’t like my hair before and Knapp joined in the game and was like, “Look, she is going red because of the compliment you gave her.” The game is on Knapp…the battle has begun and I will get you back. He is definitely in the lead though because I was by the stove by Lazarev and Knapp pops his self in and says, “You’re hot.” Me, “You mean the pan?” Lazarev, “Oh man, not that.” Me, “You don’t think I’m hot?!” “I didn’t say that…erg! I’m leaving!” Poor kid, it is just too fun to tease. It isn’t every day that an Elder calls a girl hot on his mission.
What else…Someone brought a classical guitar so I got to play a little bit. I miss playing and can’t wait to by my own guitar! Anne Garon lied to Cheryl and I, saying that it was her birthday to get us to sing for her. Two men in the ward washed all the dishes. I was so grateful for them. I played hostess, cleaning up and mingling here and there. Elder Knapp (I’m getting that kid back for all of these I swear) just had to go out of his way to introduce me to Senegal (once again forgot his name so we shall call him the country of his origins) who wanted to practice his English. We talked for a while until I passed him off to Cheryl and her friend (wa ha ha). He actually spoke English really well and didn’t have an accent or make grammatical errors. He wants to teach English back in Senegal. One of the ward members was telling me really funny stories about what he would do to blue missionaries (brand new) when he was on his mission. He’d send them into the boulangerie asking for “une baguette gratuite” (a free baguette), to the pharmacy (thinking they were asking for cough medicine) “un soutien-gorge” [literal translation: throat support real translation: bra] and that he’d have them tell Sisters that the food was disgusting. It was pretty funny. I’ve never heard the soutien-gorge one before, but I definitely want to use it.
As mentioned previously, the missionaries were out late. We started eating late (normal) but we also had people bring dessert and we had lots of amis (investigators) and lots of ward members so everyone stayed around and talked a lot. Elder Maxfield and I realized that it was almost time for them to be home (at 9:25) and we weren’t done cleaning! We started cleaning as quickly as possible (Lazarev was teaching, Bourgeois was playing the piano, and Knapp was talking). By the time we were all cleaned up and mostly waiting for Lazarev to finish teaching Kev was giving the missionaries such death glares. I suggested to Maxfield that maybe they ask Kev for a ride home so that they could get there faster. He naturally agreed because he is such a nazi when it comes to missionaries (he freaked out at the last YSA activity when he saw the missionaries at the church at the same time as all the youth). They were all in the car except for Lazarev who was telling me the funny story about the girl I told him to contact that is Chinese (who came with Zeng Chao) heard the message that Elder Lazarev left and thought that it was a Chinese person playing a prank on her and that it wasn’t an American so she never answered! Elder Bourgeois came in because Kev was about dying by this point and so they all left.
A mystery someone left a Swedish flag in my backpack (guesses anyone?) and Hannah and I got a ride almost all the way to our house from our home teacher (thank you!). What a night! We got home at 10:30 and we had left for church at 4:30! Hopefully Kev didn't scold the missionaries too badly...they were giving lessons and set up a lot of appointments and did a lot of good last night!
I was so so so tired on my run today. I can’t believe how sore I am either. I went to the gym after my run and worked out my arms. Guess who benched 45 kilos! Yay for me. I even got some homework done and sent my demand for a carte de sejour (what lets me be here legally). You see, they lost the one I sent in September. I won’t complain here, but long story short, it is dumb!
I had a great afternoon/evening/night. Hannah and I went off to visit teach Cheryl at the church about modesty. We were both really nervous about it because it can be a touchy subject. Hannah was also in a really funny mood so everything out of her mouth was hilarious. She told me about this time her sister told her brother to give his unibrow back to Bert from Sesame Street and then threw some scriptures at him and hit him in the head! When we got to the church we went to go to the bathroom and we were going to have a quick prayer in there since the missionaries were being noisy making tortillas. Hannah attempted to say it but she started cracking up and then I was laughing and we both ended up laughing so hard and so much that we were both crying. Mind you, this was in the bathroom and the kitchen is by the bathroom. Elder Bourgeois imitated Hannah’s laugh (we were that loud) which only made us laugh more. We made it out of the bathroom (eventually) rather tear and giggle free. Cheryl was running late so Hannah went to play the piano and I helped the Elders by making some tortilla dough. Another funny story! I was showing Knapp the bruise on my arm from him (he denies it) and told Elder Lazarev it was okay because I had a raspberry from him from soccer. Elder Bourgeois was frying tortillas, turned and said, “Knapp you gave her a raspberry?!” “No it wasn’t me, it was Lazarev.” “Me, not like that!” (Bourgeois was indicating the blowing on someone’s belly farting noise raspberry). Do you see how important communication is?
When Cheryl came we went into a room and started the lesson. Other then Quinton trying to disturb us it went really great. We all learned so much about modesty and Cheryl not wants to dress more modestly and it just all went over really well. The lesson was an hour long, so by the time we were done the burrito fun was about to begin.
I went into the kitchen to help prepare stuff. Paki’s mom told someone I was Swedish and that I lived at IKEA…it was so funny. I also told Elder Knapp about my dream where he pretty much turned into a vampire at church and then told me that it was true and that I should watch out next week, lol. Zeng Chao called and told me that he was coming and bringing a friend, which is so awesome because he told Elder Lazarev that he wasn’t going to come. He came and socialized with a lot of people and ended up talking with his friend and Elder Lazarev about the gospel (after we all ate) until about 10pm!
I sat by Cheryl, Cheryl’s friend from New York (who graduated from Yale…cool!), some crazy older gentleman that Elder Lazarev randomly invited, and Elder Knapp. Elder Knapp and I talked a lot to the random investigator. I don’t remember his name, so let’s just call him Congo because that is where he is from. He seemed like a pretty serious man but we had fun talking to him. Elder Knapp and I started this little battle of the witty stabs in this conversation. Naturally Congo likes playing soccer so I add that Elder Knapp is great at playing soccer and he later stabs back that I’m a super player or something ridiculous and false like that. I was impressed though because Knapp knows a lot about Congo (the parts of the country, the food, languages, etc.). He has apparently gleaned all this from talking to other Congans. I found out that Elder Knapp likes fencing (go figure…it is such a mind game and he goes to UPenn). Other random things learnt about the missionaries…Elder Lazarev is going to do ROTC, goes to BYU but has never been to SLC and Elder Maxfield is apparently very very rich. He lives in the same city as Hannah and so she figured it out when they told each other where they lived. Back to Congo. I’m not sure about the vibes that I got from him. He seemed kind of nice though because he invited Elder Knapp and I to come to dinner one night. We both simultaneously said, “Yes, I’d like to.” (In retrospect I should have said WE’d love to….see story below). I was trying to get Congo to commit to coming to church on Sunday and he was asking if he’d see me, to which I had to say no, because I will be at a friend’s and going to church there. He was telling me that I could ask Elder Knapp though if I came and prayed to God and that that would be totally fine with him. Just how this part of the conversation went made me think that Congo thought we were married…oh man. People. Hannah and I had a ward member ask us if we were sister missionaries. I was finally sassy this time (like I always am in my head) and said, “Have you ever seen us with nametags on?” Honestly people, I wasn’t even wearing THE skirt this time!
Have I ever mentioned that Kev sounds terrible when he speaks English, because he does. The intonation is awful and he says things really awkwardly with how he says everything. Needless to say it is starting to annoy me. I had my bangs down today and he would not let it go (I swear he has a thing with hair…he was obsessed with Hannah’s one Sunday). I told him multiple times that I didn’t cut it or do anything different to it, that it was the same hair. He told me that it looked better…which was then covered up with a quick “nice.” BURN! I was laughing though that he was telling me that he didn’t like my hair before and Knapp joined in the game and was like, “Look, she is going red because of the compliment you gave her.” The game is on Knapp…the battle has begun and I will get you back. He is definitely in the lead though because I was by the stove by Lazarev and Knapp pops his self in and says, “You’re hot.” Me, “You mean the pan?” Lazarev, “Oh man, not that.” Me, “You don’t think I’m hot?!” “I didn’t say that…erg! I’m leaving!” Poor kid, it is just too fun to tease. It isn’t every day that an Elder calls a girl hot on his mission.
What else…Someone brought a classical guitar so I got to play a little bit. I miss playing and can’t wait to by my own guitar! Anne Garon lied to Cheryl and I, saying that it was her birthday to get us to sing for her. Two men in the ward washed all the dishes. I was so grateful for them. I played hostess, cleaning up and mingling here and there. Elder Knapp (I’m getting that kid back for all of these I swear) just had to go out of his way to introduce me to Senegal (once again forgot his name so we shall call him the country of his origins) who wanted to practice his English. We talked for a while until I passed him off to Cheryl and her friend (wa ha ha). He actually spoke English really well and didn’t have an accent or make grammatical errors. He wants to teach English back in Senegal. One of the ward members was telling me really funny stories about what he would do to blue missionaries (brand new) when he was on his mission. He’d send them into the boulangerie asking for “une baguette gratuite” (a free baguette), to the pharmacy (thinking they were asking for cough medicine) “un soutien-gorge” [literal translation: throat support real translation: bra] and that he’d have them tell Sisters that the food was disgusting. It was pretty funny. I’ve never heard the soutien-gorge one before, but I definitely want to use it.
As mentioned previously, the missionaries were out late. We started eating late (normal) but we also had people bring dessert and we had lots of amis (investigators) and lots of ward members so everyone stayed around and talked a lot. Elder Maxfield and I realized that it was almost time for them to be home (at 9:25) and we weren’t done cleaning! We started cleaning as quickly as possible (Lazarev was teaching, Bourgeois was playing the piano, and Knapp was talking). By the time we were all cleaned up and mostly waiting for Lazarev to finish teaching Kev was giving the missionaries such death glares. I suggested to Maxfield that maybe they ask Kev for a ride home so that they could get there faster. He naturally agreed because he is such a nazi when it comes to missionaries (he freaked out at the last YSA activity when he saw the missionaries at the church at the same time as all the youth). They were all in the car except for Lazarev who was telling me the funny story about the girl I told him to contact that is Chinese (who came with Zeng Chao) heard the message that Elder Lazarev left and thought that it was a Chinese person playing a prank on her and that it wasn’t an American so she never answered! Elder Bourgeois came in because Kev was about dying by this point and so they all left.
A mystery someone left a Swedish flag in my backpack (guesses anyone?) and Hannah and I got a ride almost all the way to our house from our home teacher (thank you!). What a night! We got home at 10:30 and we had left for church at 4:30! Hopefully Kev didn't scold the missionaries too badly...they were giving lessons and set up a lot of appointments and did a lot of good last night!
Day 189: Visiting Teachers
8 mars 2010 (Day 189)
I had quite the productive morning: cleaning, laundry, shopping, and had visiting teachers for the first time. It was a little awkward in my room because it is so small, but it was okay. I received a nice lesson about scripture study and my visiting soeurs were really nice. They are both in the RS presidency. Florienne is about my age and going to have a baby anytime this week and Valerie is married to Christophe (YSA leader who likes dancing).
Dinner was really funny today. Darryl, Cole, and Melanie were there. They are all new ISEP/IRFFLE kiddos and hilarious. Cole was telling us funny stories about being gay and they were talking about drunk stories and it was just all really funny. While listening I ate and then made a birthday card for Elder Bourgeois, whose birthday is next Monday. I ended up staying in the kitchen for two hours because they were so funny! Afterwards I wrote some more letters and listened to the CES fireside, which was pretty good.
I had quite the productive morning: cleaning, laundry, shopping, and had visiting teachers for the first time. It was a little awkward in my room because it is so small, but it was okay. I received a nice lesson about scripture study and my visiting soeurs were really nice. They are both in the RS presidency. Florienne is about my age and going to have a baby anytime this week and Valerie is married to Christophe (YSA leader who likes dancing).
Dinner was really funny today. Darryl, Cole, and Melanie were there. They are all new ISEP/IRFFLE kiddos and hilarious. Cole was telling us funny stories about being gay and they were talking about drunk stories and it was just all really funny. While listening I ate and then made a birthday card for Elder Bourgeois, whose birthday is next Monday. I ended up staying in the kitchen for two hours because they were so funny! Afterwards I wrote some more letters and listened to the CES fireside, which was pretty good.
Day 188: Church with Zeng Chao
7 mars 2010 (Day 188)
Brr! It is cold in Nantes. The sun is out, but the wind is gusting. The humidity has also dropped a lot so we are all feeling a difference. I just about froze in Sunday School where we were teaching Zeng Chao, my Chinese friend from IRFFLE about free agency. In RS we had a really nice lesson about temples. I definitely miss having temples in my backyard. Sacrament was a really nice testimony even with screaming children. Zeng Chao has been looking up the church online and naturally came across anti-Mormon literature which Elder Lazarev did a good job dealing with. At least I think he did, I’m not sure because all of it was in Chinese so I didn’t know much of what was happening. Choir was rather dur today, we were having a really hard time with the song that we were learning. Thankfully Joel Garon (Isabel’s “French dad”) was there supplying lots of comic relief for me.
On the way home from church Armelle hinted that it would be nice if I spoke with Cheryl about modesty, so that will be…interesting. According to her the ward has been talking and it is quite a problem in their eyes. I spent a good part of the afternoon looking up talks on modesty and I actually learned a lot. It was really interesting reading all the different articles. I also listened to several talks not related to the subject that were interesting anyways.
Brr! It is cold in Nantes. The sun is out, but the wind is gusting. The humidity has also dropped a lot so we are all feeling a difference. I just about froze in Sunday School where we were teaching Zeng Chao, my Chinese friend from IRFFLE about free agency. In RS we had a really nice lesson about temples. I definitely miss having temples in my backyard. Sacrament was a really nice testimony even with screaming children. Zeng Chao has been looking up the church online and naturally came across anti-Mormon literature which Elder Lazarev did a good job dealing with. At least I think he did, I’m not sure because all of it was in Chinese so I didn’t know much of what was happening. Choir was rather dur today, we were having a really hard time with the song that we were learning. Thankfully Joel Garon (Isabel’s “French dad”) was there supplying lots of comic relief for me.
On the way home from church Armelle hinted that it would be nice if I spoke with Cheryl about modesty, so that will be…interesting. According to her the ward has been talking and it is quite a problem in their eyes. I spent a good part of the afternoon looking up talks on modesty and I actually learned a lot. It was really interesting reading all the different articles. I also listened to several talks not related to the subject that were interesting anyways.
Day 187: Football!
6 mars 2010 (Day 187)
Another busy day! Cleaning, running, shopping, going to the marche, and most awesomely playing soccer with Cheryl, Elder Knapp, Elder Lazarev, and Jonathon (some random teen). We played soccer for about two hours and I definitely have the bruises [and soreness!] to prove it. Cheryl is a really aggressive player, Laz is really good even when he is playing nicely/easy, and Knapp is out of shape along with me, lol. Cheryl left claw marks on Knapp. We had so much fun playing though. It felt so good to play soccer. I definitely missed my shinguards and cleats though. On the tram ride home Cheryl told Elder Lazarev and I this awesome story about her dad and how because she was born on the sixth of April (“Jesus and I share a birthday!”). When we got to Commerce there was a manifestation. It was quite excited. The boys were especially excited and had to get pictures. It was a manifestation against the airport because it is on farm land. Fifty tractors were brought in and hundreds of people were there. Luckily no one was drunk yet and they weren’t burning anything, so it was a fairly “nice” manifestation.
Tonight I went to a nice house party with my French buddy Emilien. By the end of the night there were about sixteen of us in his friend’s apartment just talking, snacking, and drinking (non-alcoholic for me). It was a really nice party, pretty mellow and I got to talk to a lot of different people. I enjoyed my social observations as usual…people with alcohol are so fun. I have yet to see someone get ‘better’ with alcohol in their system; it seems to just make you dumb. My favorite was this American who admitted to drinking too much and was flirting quite terribly with several of the boys. Good times. I can definitely say that I am glad that I don’t have friends at home who drink. Lots of different subjects were covered with various people including sports, America, music, Germany, careers, etc. Around midnight we left because they were heading out to a dance club and I just headed home.
Another busy day! Cleaning, running, shopping, going to the marche, and most awesomely playing soccer with Cheryl, Elder Knapp, Elder Lazarev, and Jonathon (some random teen). We played soccer for about two hours and I definitely have the bruises [and soreness!] to prove it. Cheryl is a really aggressive player, Laz is really good even when he is playing nicely/easy, and Knapp is out of shape along with me, lol. Cheryl left claw marks on Knapp. We had so much fun playing though. It felt so good to play soccer. I definitely missed my shinguards and cleats though. On the tram ride home Cheryl told Elder Lazarev and I this awesome story about her dad and how because she was born on the sixth of April (“Jesus and I share a birthday!”). When we got to Commerce there was a manifestation. It was quite excited. The boys were especially excited and had to get pictures. It was a manifestation against the airport because it is on farm land. Fifty tractors were brought in and hundreds of people were there. Luckily no one was drunk yet and they weren’t burning anything, so it was a fairly “nice” manifestation.
Tonight I went to a nice house party with my French buddy Emilien. By the end of the night there were about sixteen of us in his friend’s apartment just talking, snacking, and drinking (non-alcoholic for me). It was a really nice party, pretty mellow and I got to talk to a lot of different people. I enjoyed my social observations as usual…people with alcohol are so fun. I have yet to see someone get ‘better’ with alcohol in their system; it seems to just make you dumb. My favorite was this American who admitted to drinking too much and was flirting quite terribly with several of the boys. Good times. I can definitely say that I am glad that I don’t have friends at home who drink. Lots of different subjects were covered with various people including sports, America, music, Germany, careers, etc. Around midnight we left because they were heading out to a dance club and I just headed home.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Day 186: I totally believe in epistemocentrisme scolastique
5 mars 2010 (Day 186)
I love Fridays. They really are the greatest. Class doesn’t start until 10, my teacher is hilarious, I get to go to the gym and then history and get macarons. Life doesn’t get much better than that. I really wish that everyone could appreciate the humor of my sociology of art teacher. Today he went on a parenthese (side story) about some guy who saved him a spot in the tram and drew a picture of him and then he was talking about how it was ugly people who made up that saying about how it is the inside that counts and that it just sucks to be ugly. This was after an amazing parenthese about epistemocentrisme scolastique. This is basically the idea that scholastic people will often give (or try to give) meanings to things that the artist created with no meaning/has a different meaning. AKA they give meanings/messages that weren’t given in a work from the artist. I completely agree. Especially with literature. The gym was also enjoyable. Not only did Hannah and I kick our abs’ trash, we got to stare at cute boys while rowing (which is my new favorite exercise next to running). I don’t like it because I get to analyze all the French boys, but because it is really repetitive like running, so you just get in sync and go and it works our my weak areas (shoulders, back, abs).
History was good as always. We had to fill out this stupid paper for this girl who is observing that was really dumb and really vague. Today we talked about women after the war and the economic crisis. Right after class I hopped on the tram and started eating my dinner before we had another rendezvous with Han. I got there about 10 minutes before we were supposed to start and the gate was locked! It was really cold so I sat outside for about 20 minutes, reading my Preach My Gospel wondering where the missionaries were. I heard a noise and I turned and saw Elder Lazarev trying to sneak up on me. I can’t believe they thought they could sneak up and open the gate without me noticing. Nice try.
Teaching Han the plan of salvation went really well. Elder Knapp had this gorgeous wooden sort of jigsaw puzzle of the plan of salvation that he used. Before we started Han had some really great questions about what she’s been reading in the Book of Mormon. She really is so smart and asks really good questions—I was learning new things! It is such a neat experience to go teach with the missionaries. Everyone should get a chance to do it. Han won’t be coming to church on Sunday because she has tests all next week. They will be meeting with her next Saturday. I’m really sad that I won’t get to be there because they think they are going to commit her to baptism then, but I’ll be in Rennes with Pierrick exploring the city!
The lesson was pretty long so it went into institute (I’m not complaining). I munched on my yummy nature and blue berry macarons and tried not to look at my watch too much.
I love Fridays. They really are the greatest. Class doesn’t start until 10, my teacher is hilarious, I get to go to the gym and then history and get macarons. Life doesn’t get much better than that. I really wish that everyone could appreciate the humor of my sociology of art teacher. Today he went on a parenthese (side story) about some guy who saved him a spot in the tram and drew a picture of him and then he was talking about how it was ugly people who made up that saying about how it is the inside that counts and that it just sucks to be ugly. This was after an amazing parenthese about epistemocentrisme scolastique. This is basically the idea that scholastic people will often give (or try to give) meanings to things that the artist created with no meaning/has a different meaning. AKA they give meanings/messages that weren’t given in a work from the artist. I completely agree. Especially with literature. The gym was also enjoyable. Not only did Hannah and I kick our abs’ trash, we got to stare at cute boys while rowing (which is my new favorite exercise next to running). I don’t like it because I get to analyze all the French boys, but because it is really repetitive like running, so you just get in sync and go and it works our my weak areas (shoulders, back, abs).
History was good as always. We had to fill out this stupid paper for this girl who is observing that was really dumb and really vague. Today we talked about women after the war and the economic crisis. Right after class I hopped on the tram and started eating my dinner before we had another rendezvous with Han. I got there about 10 minutes before we were supposed to start and the gate was locked! It was really cold so I sat outside for about 20 minutes, reading my Preach My Gospel wondering where the missionaries were. I heard a noise and I turned and saw Elder Lazarev trying to sneak up on me. I can’t believe they thought they could sneak up and open the gate without me noticing. Nice try.
Teaching Han the plan of salvation went really well. Elder Knapp had this gorgeous wooden sort of jigsaw puzzle of the plan of salvation that he used. Before we started Han had some really great questions about what she’s been reading in the Book of Mormon. She really is so smart and asks really good questions—I was learning new things! It is such a neat experience to go teach with the missionaries. Everyone should get a chance to do it. Han won’t be coming to church on Sunday because she has tests all next week. They will be meeting with her next Saturday. I’m really sad that I won’t get to be there because they think they are going to commit her to baptism then, but I’ll be in Rennes with Pierrick exploring the city!
The lesson was pretty long so it went into institute (I’m not complaining). I munched on my yummy nature and blue berry macarons and tried not to look at my watch too much.
Day 185: Stupid boys. Gay boys. Funny boys.
4 mars 2010 (Day 185)
Boy do I need to get better at going to bed. I don’t know how it is, but I just have loads of things to do and I never seem to do them all. I had to wake up early to do homework. Phonetics is really getting hard. Today Ali, our teacher (a man…think Prince Ali from Aladdin) taught us a concept (placement in your mouth of all the different sound productions) and then had us put away our notes and started quizzing us on it. Is he crazy or are French kids expected to have photographic memories because I can assure you it will take me a couple of hours of studying to get close to being able to do the exercise correctly.
Hannah was having boy problems today so we went on a nice anti-boy run after class. I made a great mix and with my energy from not sleeping I was practically a bouncy ball on the run. Hannah just laughed at me and after three miles she let me go off by myself and run some more (and faster) which I did. I felt really good running today.
I made a yummy omelet with ham cheese and tomato for lunch and then went shopping to get some frozen ratatouille vegetables to have with my blé for dinner. Blé is buckwheat and it is really good, I recommend it if you are sick of pasta and rice. I had a really nice dinner of my ratatouille and buckwheat with Cole and Darryl. They are both newbies with ISEP. Cole is this cute skinny gay feminine studies major. I’m not sure what Darryl is studying, but she is pretty deer-in-the-headlights because she doesn’t know French. It was fun and funny talking to them. Apparently Cole likes Prada and is buying a suitcase here that costs a couple hundred euros…no big deal for them of course.
I failed at getting homework done (yet again) but I did get lots of other things crossed off my to do list, including some important things like talking to a USU adviser. She told me some stuff that I didn’t know…like that the teaching program takes 3 semesters and a pre-req I need to take. It looks like I should (if there are no class scheduling clashes) finish up with school in 5 semesters.
Oh man, the missionaries never fail to make me laugh. Today it was Elder Knapp’s turn to remind me about our rendez-vous (meeting or RDV) with Han tomorrow. We started chit chatting (don’t worry it was still under 10 minutes), still on relatively church topics. Elder Knapp was telling me (because there was lots of background noise) that Elder Lazarev was in the kitchen, with a knife between his teeth pretending to be a pirate. Bless that kid’s heart, he is such a great missionary. Elder Knapp then told me, “If I wasn’t a missionary I’d be calling you right now just to talk.” This got a sufficiently amusing response out of Elder Lazarev and made me laugh. They are all such teases! I got informed about what they are planning on teaching Han so that I can study up a little (it is just more fun that way, be like a boy scout, be prepared, right?). I’m so excited for Han though, she is really interested in the church and there is a branch in the town that she will be moving to, which is great news!
Boy do I need to get better at going to bed. I don’t know how it is, but I just have loads of things to do and I never seem to do them all. I had to wake up early to do homework. Phonetics is really getting hard. Today Ali, our teacher (a man…think Prince Ali from Aladdin) taught us a concept (placement in your mouth of all the different sound productions) and then had us put away our notes and started quizzing us on it. Is he crazy or are French kids expected to have photographic memories because I can assure you it will take me a couple of hours of studying to get close to being able to do the exercise correctly.
Hannah was having boy problems today so we went on a nice anti-boy run after class. I made a great mix and with my energy from not sleeping I was practically a bouncy ball on the run. Hannah just laughed at me and after three miles she let me go off by myself and run some more (and faster) which I did. I felt really good running today.
I made a yummy omelet with ham cheese and tomato for lunch and then went shopping to get some frozen ratatouille vegetables to have with my blé for dinner. Blé is buckwheat and it is really good, I recommend it if you are sick of pasta and rice. I had a really nice dinner of my ratatouille and buckwheat with Cole and Darryl. They are both newbies with ISEP. Cole is this cute skinny gay feminine studies major. I’m not sure what Darryl is studying, but she is pretty deer-in-the-headlights because she doesn’t know French. It was fun and funny talking to them. Apparently Cole likes Prada and is buying a suitcase here that costs a couple hundred euros…no big deal for them of course.
I failed at getting homework done (yet again) but I did get lots of other things crossed off my to do list, including some important things like talking to a USU adviser. She told me some stuff that I didn’t know…like that the teaching program takes 3 semesters and a pre-req I need to take. It looks like I should (if there are no class scheduling clashes) finish up with school in 5 semesters.
Oh man, the missionaries never fail to make me laugh. Today it was Elder Knapp’s turn to remind me about our rendez-vous (meeting or RDV) with Han tomorrow. We started chit chatting (don’t worry it was still under 10 minutes), still on relatively church topics. Elder Knapp was telling me (because there was lots of background noise) that Elder Lazarev was in the kitchen, with a knife between his teeth pretending to be a pirate. Bless that kid’s heart, he is such a great missionary. Elder Knapp then told me, “If I wasn’t a missionary I’d be calling you right now just to talk.” This got a sufficiently amusing response out of Elder Lazarev and made me laugh. They are all such teases! I got informed about what they are planning on teaching Han so that I can study up a little (it is just more fun that way, be like a boy scout, be prepared, right?). I’m so excited for Han though, she is really interested in the church and there is a branch in the town that she will be moving to, which is great news!
Day 184: Buck Up
3 mars 2010 (Day 184)
Buck up. This is the advice Mr. Miller (the best teacher on the planet dead or alive) gave to me, via my mother, when she said I was struggling with French Lit. Let me correct this, I am not ‘struggling’ I just hate it. There is a difference. This week wasn’t that bad. It may have helped that I brought my laptop and wasn’t paying too much attention. I gleaned about as much from the lesson as normal, lol. Not only did I survive French lit (and almost liked it in the TD) I survived running with rats. Yes, rats. I was running down in this wood/park/river area and a heard a noise. I looked down. There was a rat. It wasn’t where the noise came from. I looked more left, another rat! I kept my squeal in my head and kept running. The rat that I saw first decided to run beside me. I was quite scared that he was going to turn and bite me. Luckily he didn’t. I ended up running around in the mud (I wanted to try a new trail) but it was all good and fun.
Tonight I went to the symphony with Cheryl, Hannah, Kev, Deysi, and Kev’s friend. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the piece. It was Mendelssohn and a choir. The choir did an amazing job, there were people shouting ‘Bravo!’ at the end. It was really good, although I was quite tired. We had quite the adventure finding our seats. The usher sent us to the right instead of the left so we ended up walking over all the people all the way until the other side. Good times!
Buck up. This is the advice Mr. Miller (the best teacher on the planet dead or alive) gave to me, via my mother, when she said I was struggling with French Lit. Let me correct this, I am not ‘struggling’ I just hate it. There is a difference. This week wasn’t that bad. It may have helped that I brought my laptop and wasn’t paying too much attention. I gleaned about as much from the lesson as normal, lol. Not only did I survive French lit (and almost liked it in the TD) I survived running with rats. Yes, rats. I was running down in this wood/park/river area and a heard a noise. I looked down. There was a rat. It wasn’t where the noise came from. I looked more left, another rat! I kept my squeal in my head and kept running. The rat that I saw first decided to run beside me. I was quite scared that he was going to turn and bite me. Luckily he didn’t. I ended up running around in the mud (I wanted to try a new trail) but it was all good and fun.
Tonight I went to the symphony with Cheryl, Hannah, Kev, Deysi, and Kev’s friend. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the piece. It was Mendelssohn and a choir. The choir did an amazing job, there were people shouting ‘Bravo!’ at the end. It was really good, although I was quite tired. We had quite the adventure finding our seats. The usher sent us to the right instead of the left so we ended up walking over all the people all the way until the other side. Good times!
Day 183: Teaching Lessons
2 mars 2010 (Day 183)
I had an appointment to meet Han with the missionaries today. I went to the church, heard one missionary playing the piano, and was going to the bathroom when I saw Elder Smiley. I thought he was in Evry (suburb of Paris) already so it was like what the heck?!!? He was with two other Elders and they invited me in. We did the normal chit chat until Han arrived. Elder Knapp’s companion was talking on the phone or something so when Han was ready for her lesson Elder Knapp invited Elder Smiley to come help. It was super great a super great lesson. We all bore our testimony and you could really feel the spirit. The lesson was about the restoration and it went really great. Towards the end Elder Lazarev came in and it was just all great. It was so amazing to feel the Spirit and testify! I want to go on a mission! Han is so great. We set up another appointment and she really wants to find the truth about the gospel and go to church in Bordeaux when she moves there for an internship at the end of this month.
Afterwards Elder Smiley asked me to go to the train station with him and his companion since I still had time before English lessons were going to start. Talking to Elder Smiley was…interesting. I guess first impressions aren’t always the greatest. I thought he was such a sweet innocent boy and then he got going on a rather interesting monologue.
He told me that he essentially doesn’t like dealing with crap so he will tell girls how it is (you know, like I like you, don’t want to date you, whatever). I teased him about the Canadian lover that he apparently has (some girl that he met here in France since he has been on his mission) and was then informed about a girl in Cali as well as a girl in Utah. Who knew he was such the pimp…After this multiple-girl comment Smiley said, “Yeah, but I don’t have a Russian.”
So we are in the tram and there are girls scantily clad (naturally). I don’t really notice, but Smiley gets talking about it and he is like you know what, this isn’t missionary speaking, this is Cameron speaking, but sometimes I’d really just like to take a machete and just slice and chop off their legs. He then says, “I can't wait to go back to the land of milk and honey.” I am thinking he is talking about Paris because he has served in Paris. I ask him about it and he says, “No, Utah where i don't have to think if the girl i'm looking at smokes, drinks, or has had sex.” Well that was…blunt. I also learned that he has gotten herpes on his chest (not the STD), mono, and has had problems with his knee…all this to keep him humble (I guess he needs it with all the talking about girls).
I went back to the church and was dinking around on the piano because the Elders were in a lesson and I don’t have a piano in my room. Elder Knapp came in after a couple of minutes and asked if I wanted to come into the lesson that they were teaching and I said of course. It was my Chinese friend Zeng Chao whom I met in IRFFLE. It was so incredible to see Elder Lazarev speak Chinese. This flawless stream of Chinese, French, and English just comes flowing out of his mouth. Lazarev and Zeng Chao would randomly say some things in French so that Elder Knapp and I knew what they were talking about. He is definitely a lot more skeptical about the church than Han, but he said he is going to come to church on Sunday!
The English lesson went well. I taught the beginners and just went through a powerpoint with different vocabulary words. Afterwards was the more exciting (if you can call it that) part. Quinton stole my bag and would not give it back and it was late and the missionaries needed to lock up. Long story short we spent at least a solid five minutes trying to get Quinton to give my bag back. Luckily Elder Knapp and Elder Bourgeois were there to rough house with Quinton otherwise I never would have gotten it back. Quinton was being such a pill. He wanted me to say that he was ugly, mean, and that he smelt.
I had an appointment to meet Han with the missionaries today. I went to the church, heard one missionary playing the piano, and was going to the bathroom when I saw Elder Smiley. I thought he was in Evry (suburb of Paris) already so it was like what the heck?!!? He was with two other Elders and they invited me in. We did the normal chit chat until Han arrived. Elder Knapp’s companion was talking on the phone or something so when Han was ready for her lesson Elder Knapp invited Elder Smiley to come help. It was super great a super great lesson. We all bore our testimony and you could really feel the spirit. The lesson was about the restoration and it went really great. Towards the end Elder Lazarev came in and it was just all great. It was so amazing to feel the Spirit and testify! I want to go on a mission! Han is so great. We set up another appointment and she really wants to find the truth about the gospel and go to church in Bordeaux when she moves there for an internship at the end of this month.
Afterwards Elder Smiley asked me to go to the train station with him and his companion since I still had time before English lessons were going to start. Talking to Elder Smiley was…interesting. I guess first impressions aren’t always the greatest. I thought he was such a sweet innocent boy and then he got going on a rather interesting monologue.
He told me that he essentially doesn’t like dealing with crap so he will tell girls how it is (you know, like I like you, don’t want to date you, whatever). I teased him about the Canadian lover that he apparently has (some girl that he met here in France since he has been on his mission) and was then informed about a girl in Cali as well as a girl in Utah. Who knew he was such the pimp…After this multiple-girl comment Smiley said, “Yeah, but I don’t have a Russian.”
So we are in the tram and there are girls scantily clad (naturally). I don’t really notice, but Smiley gets talking about it and he is like you know what, this isn’t missionary speaking, this is Cameron speaking, but sometimes I’d really just like to take a machete and just slice and chop off their legs. He then says, “I can't wait to go back to the land of milk and honey.” I am thinking he is talking about Paris because he has served in Paris. I ask him about it and he says, “No, Utah where i don't have to think if the girl i'm looking at smokes, drinks, or has had sex.” Well that was…blunt. I also learned that he has gotten herpes on his chest (not the STD), mono, and has had problems with his knee…all this to keep him humble (I guess he needs it with all the talking about girls).
I went back to the church and was dinking around on the piano because the Elders were in a lesson and I don’t have a piano in my room. Elder Knapp came in after a couple of minutes and asked if I wanted to come into the lesson that they were teaching and I said of course. It was my Chinese friend Zeng Chao whom I met in IRFFLE. It was so incredible to see Elder Lazarev speak Chinese. This flawless stream of Chinese, French, and English just comes flowing out of his mouth. Lazarev and Zeng Chao would randomly say some things in French so that Elder Knapp and I knew what they were talking about. He is definitely a lot more skeptical about the church than Han, but he said he is going to come to church on Sunday!
The English lesson went well. I taught the beginners and just went through a powerpoint with different vocabulary words. Afterwards was the more exciting (if you can call it that) part. Quinton stole my bag and would not give it back and it was late and the missionaries needed to lock up. Long story short we spent at least a solid five minutes trying to get Quinton to give my bag back. Luckily Elder Knapp and Elder Bourgeois were there to rough house with Quinton otherwise I never would have gotten it back. Quinton was being such a pill. He wanted me to say that he was ugly, mean, and that he smelt.
Day 182: March 1st
1 mars 2010 (Day 182)
I worked out so much today! It was great. I went on a terrible run (terrible being I didn’t run well) whilst doing my laundry. I continued my multitasking after I put the laundry in the dryer and went grocery shopping. I am really excited to have veggies and eggs. The eggs here are much better than those in America, probably because France is all fields and farming! Um, I didn’t really do anything else worth mentioning.
I worked out so much today! It was great. I went on a terrible run (terrible being I didn’t run well) whilst doing my laundry. I continued my multitasking after I put the laundry in the dryer and went grocery shopping. I am really excited to have veggies and eggs. The eggs here are much better than those in America, probably because France is all fields and farming! Um, I didn’t really do anything else worth mentioning.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Day 181: Xynthia should have blown over Elder B
What woke me up early this morning
Pretty much my favorite picture of Elder B...ever. I don't know who took it, but it is epic. (Those are Avatar 3d glasses)28 fevrier 2010 (Day 181)
Today started out quite blustery day. Apparently some giant storm (Xynthia is her name)whipped through France (killed 50 or so people in France) and knocked over and blew around the garbage cans here in Nantes which made quite the noise and woke me up well before my alarm was to go off. It was worth it though because I got to chit chat with my bestest friend ever!!!!!! Until she started to fall asleep, lol. Kev was nice enough to come pick up Hannah and me for church since Armelle and Stephane are still on vacation. Elder Bourgeois came in and informed me I was to sit by Adessa’s friend if she came. Hello to you too Elder Bourgeois. She didn’t come, but my ami Han did (as well as Deysi). She came in at the end of a really nice lesson about service using President Monson’s talk from the last conference. We even each got our own warm fuzzy. I went with Han and Deysi to the investigator class where we learned about why Jesus is our Savior. I attempted to summarize the whole lesson in about 2 minutes of English and I hope Han understood. It is a lot harder than you would think! The first talk in sacrament meeting was really great but the Bishop’s was a little…thick. I enjoyed watching the missionaries fall asleep during it, lol. Poor guys get along to well so they stay up talking all night.
Hannah gave a great lesson to Cheryl for visiting teaching after church. I learned a lot from it, even with the ten different people who popped their heads into the room we were teaching in. Afterwards we ate some (we didn’t eat all) of the leftover crepes from the YSA activity yesterday. I brought jam, nutella, sugar, bananas, and coconut to stick on the crepes. I enjoyed them as did the missionaries. Someone has got to feed those hungry boys. I actually called them last night to let them know that the YSA were bringing crepes for them to eat. Elder Knapp answered but all the other Elders started jabbering when I was trying to tell him, so he didn’t really hear me. It was the shortest conversation I’ve had with the Elders…normally they last around 5 minutes. Anywho we cleaned up and Kevin INSISTED on giving Cheryl, Hannah, and me a ride home. It was very kind of him. Too bad his car smells funny. Kevin is definitely an interesting kid, but he has a good heart.
Today I’ve been studying church stuff, listening to General Conference, writing in my journal, and planning weekend getaways with charming French boys (yes grandma and mom, you should be worried…just kidding!).
Elder Bourgeois called me last night asking for a really big favor. I said sure. He asked if I was at a friend’s house. “I don’t have any friends.” “Sure you have lots. So I need you to use the internet {I start pulling up the train station website}. BYU played New Mexico last night and I need to know the score. They are ranked 12 and 13.” I mentioned this not being very churchy but I gave him the score anyway because 1. It gives me clout 2. BYU lost. I ended up reading Elder Bourgeois a lot of the article. At first I was on BYU’s sight and looking at a summary of the game that didn’t show the score. I started reading it and Elder B was like, “Oh no! That means they lost.” I am now THE BEST though. Gotta love helping missionaries break rules. All for of them are sadly BYU fans. May God bless their souls. Yeah…those missionaries. I talked to Brad Call, my brother’s brother-in-law who served with a lot of them. “I remember when all those guys were blue. They were so cute back then said as if I was talking about a puppy, or my little sister.” Brad and I also ended up talking about color personality tests and I now have a train ticket to go to Rennes!
Day 180: Mission Impossible
Anthony, Gwenaelle, Mari
27 fevrier 2010 (Day 180)
It was pretty nice this morning waiting outside to get picked up for the YSA stake activity “Mission Impossible concerning the five senses.” We all met at the church and then split up into two cars and headed off to Angers. We went through the countryside this time and it was really pretty. I road with Christophe, Quinton, Gwenaelle, and Anthony.
Christophe gave the spiritual thought at this activity. It was a really interesting talk about dependencies (like/usage -> want/abuse -> need/dependence). We talked not only about the typical dependencies (drugs, alcohol) but other physical and behavioral (running, food, internet, avoiding responsibility). It gave all of us a lot of things to think about. Afterwards we had our picnic lunches and then split up into four teams of about 5-6 people. I was in a group with Benjamin (who I met last time), Hannah, Ophelie, Celia, and a boy whose name is escaping me right now. We then went to different rooms where different activities dealing with the five senses were set up. Each activity generally had an explanation before actually explaining how that sense worked. For sight we had to try to find 20 objects that were hidden outside in five minutes. It was funny because Benjamin started picking them up and carrying them instead of writing them down on his paper! For smell we had to smell things (nasty things mostly): ash, smelly cheese, stinky shoes, clementines, onions, spices, etc. I did terribly trying to identify smells. I also epically failed at guessing what was in the concoction we all tasted (luckily this was for team points). My team actually guessed five out of the six ingredients (and I didn’t even know what 3 of the ingredients were when I was told the correct answers!). For the sound activity we had to guess the decibels for certain sounds and my group didn’t too well (but we didn’t do horribly). My favorite activity was touch. They had 5 or 6 buckets filled with various things and we had to reach in and find objects that were hidden in things like: wet marshmallows (which freaked a lot of people out), broken eggs, flour, newspaper, rice, etc. I was the only one on my team that found all the items (yes!).
I went with Gwenaelle to the grocery store to find something to eat (she’s diabetic) because they weren’t planning on having dinner for at least an hour. When we got back from the store we found out that due to the big storm that is coming! We definitely had enough food this time (way too many crepes). They were so good! I had a nutella & banana, blueberry, that wonderful gingerbread-tasting spread, and lemon with powdered sugar crepes. I love crepes. After eating and Benjamin telling me about a zillion times that I am so nice (over and over) and having him zip up my coat all the way and put my hood on my head and getting a picture (since I’m so cute like that) we left to go back to Nantes.
The ride home was definitely noteworthy. We were listening to some great church music and Quinton started talking about how he doesn’t have any skills, how no one likes him, how his mother would be happy if he died and all these other terrible things. We spent most of the ride trying to convince him that he was a good person and not mean and that his logic was ridiculous. We played an accidental game of tag with the other car (trying to find each other so they didn’t get lost). Eventually Christophe was having a quieter conversation with Quinton in the front and we were listening to the church music. Then Gwenaelle started crying. Then Anthony started crying. Then I didn’t cry and tried to consolidate the two instead. It was a good bonding time although awkward to have an 18-year-old boy crying in a car due to music along with a 20-something year old girl.
Day 179: Goodbye Isabel
26 fevrier 2010 (Day 179)
Today we had a goodbye party for Isabel. Isabel, our Spanish Brit is going to work in Barcelona for the next six months. I’m pretty sure that Cheryl will go through withdrawals without her other half. They were inseparable. It was at Gwenaelle’s (aka Gwen) apartment that is four stops away so I just walked there. On the way I picked up some yummy paysan bread from a boulangerie that I have always wanted to go to.
Everyone was totally late except for Gaelle and Paki. We waited for almost 30 minutes for everyone to arrive. Cheryl told us we were meeting at 2pm but she didn’t tell Gwen. Gwen got off the tram from shopping and saw all of us. Oh la la was it a funny mishap. It ended up working out fine. We played loup-garou (werewolf) which is like murder in the dark with werewolves and villagers out in the hall while Gwen cleaned up quickly. We then went inside and made some crepe mix and played loup-garou with some neighbors. I then got to try my skills and making and flipping crepes. I didn’t do too badly considering it was my first time making them French style. Anthony is definitely a crepe flipping pro. He enjoyed being one of two boys there (the other being married and with his wife). We made the crepes for our YSA activity that is tomorrow in Angers. We didn’t make enough batter so some of the group left and got more eggs and milk. We talked and had all the snacks that everyone brought.
Day 178: Blois
Chateau de Blois
Blois
Quiet City
25 fevrier 2010 (Day 178)
I didn’t sleep very well even though the bed was really comfortable. I kept on waking up so once the town would start waking up I headed out. I think I went into about every bakery in Blois looking for a good looking almond croissant. I finally settled for a little pain au chocolat aux amandes (with almonds). I was disappointed with it so I found another bakery and got a croissant aux amandes. I was yet again disappointed. It was much better in Marseille with Whitney! I went to a bakery and got a great multigrain baguette for lunch and found a grocery store to pick up some produce.
After I had my breakfast I just walked throughout Blois. I crossed a giant bridge and went to the other side and saw some churches. I pretty much would find a tall cool looking building and then walk to it. Most of the churches were closed this morning though, which was disappointing that I couldn’t go in. I walked to a mosque, saw the city buildings, and a bunch of other things before the girls even left the hotel. They may have been wiser staying inside because it was raining! When I met up with Hannah and Jessica I was soaking. We walked around the castle. We would have gone inside but it was 8 euros per person (aka not worth it). The girls saw some things they liked in a tapestry store so we went inside and Hannah bought a silver butterfly broach for sixty euros and some sewing scissors on a chain for her mom. Jessica got a fancy ceramic spoon for her mom. And me, I don’t spend that much money on stuff. :] We went to the tourist office. Curse them. We went to verify times to go to Chambord, only the coolest castle ever and the reason we were going on this trip. She told us the wrong time and there is only one bus a day and we missed it. The worst part is we were there. We just sat in the train station and ate our lunches because it was pouring rain and there isn’t much to see in Blois. While waiting we made a reservation at this amazing looking restaurant and then went looking for our bus. And we missed it because she told us the wrong time. We had all had enough by this point so we went and changed our tickets so that we could go home to Nantes.
We huddled around a space heater and tried to dry our backpacks and socks while waiting for the train. I was really excited because I realized that I could get Elder Bourgeois a Paris Brest from Tours for which he would sell his first child. I had it all planned out and I was totally ready to go because I had fifteen minutes in between our scheduled departure and arrival. I called Elder B. to make sure that he wasn’t allergic to pralines because they didn’t have the Paris Brest aux Fraises (with strawberries) that are his favorite in the whole wide world. I figured it was okay if I missed Chambord because Elder B. would be super happy and it would be an adventure to run and get a pastry (especially since the Tours religieuse was pretty gross). We got on the train and while the girls slept I anticipated my adventure, I still hadn’t gotten a hold of Elder B. but I figured he’d still like it. Then the train stopped. Right on the tracks, I have no idea why, but we were stopped for a while. We ended up getting into Tours ten minutes late. While arriving Elder B. finally called me back and then I had to explain the sad story about how I was going to get him his favorite pastry (he loves Tours and he served there for eight months) but then my train came in late. We literally walked off our first train and got on the next. I was pretty bummed so I stared out the window for a lot of the ride. There are so many beautiful manors and random castles throughout France! Wyoming would be a lot more interesting to drive through if it was like that. We made it to Nantes and we were all pretty tired.
I went looking for a fleece jacket because only wearing one coat for our adventure was a terrible idea because I froze. I looked in a couple of stores and ended up deciding against getting a fleece jacket because it would be pretty warm for spring. I did find really cheap sleeping bags (ten euros!). I didn’t buy one though. I just headed home and went for a short run later on.
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