Court!

It’s finals week! No big deal! These tests are very easy! It’s been no thang but a chicken wing! I have nine finals and they all aren’t going to be so easy. I hope anyway! Today I have posted some more updates from the two week vacation. Enjoy!

This is a picture of the tram next to the university.

Part II, II, et IV!

The next day we went to a German Lutheran Church. It was interesting! I couldn’t understand a word that was being said, so I was a bit board; however, It was a very cultural experience! After that we found a little flee market where I bought a pin that says “Deutschland” for my backpack. We then toured the town of Hanover a bit and saw the high points. C’était vachement génial ! After walking through town we ate at a very nice and cheep restaurant near Sarah and Sean’s apartment. Laura and Sean tried to teach me some German words, but I wasn’t quite picking it up. Oh well. I thought that maybe French would be useful in Germany, but I was extremely wrong! Everybody in Germany speaks English. Even bums speak English. It’s crazy! If I had wanted to study German, I would have probably cried without ceasing! I’m a blessed that most French people don’t speak fluent English! That won’t be the case in just a few years, but for now ça va!

The next day Sarah and I took a stroll through the town while are friends wrote essays. They had to take an online class back at their home campus in San Angelo and they had to do homework while we were there – HOW RUDE! Sarah and I walked through the town together and found a really cool park. We took some pictures next to some old gazebo and some random German lady walked by and said something. I had no clue what she was saying, so I just said, “JA!” which is German for yes. After that we met back up with our friends and went to dinner. Sara and Sean took us to this really nice but cheap restaurant. They gave you a free bottle of wine if you buy two meals off of the same menu! Seeing as how I have become temporarily French, I was very happy! Don’t worry Sharia; I will become American again before I come back to Baylor! I’ve never been drunk in my life, but the bottle of wine that Sarah and I shared did make us both very happy to be alive!

The next day Sarah and I departed for Hamburg where we would be taking our flight to Paris. When we got off of the train, some young guy asked me for money and I went ahead and gave him a little bit. Later on, Sarah and I were trying to figure out how we were going to pay for the lockers for our luggage considering that we had no coins. That’s when I saw the same guy walk by and approached him to ask for change (I KNEW HE HAD SOME!). When I asked him he started to tell me his story again. I just stoped him by saying, “Yeah, I already know… remember…I gave you some money…do you have change for a five?” He did and he gave it to me! After that we wondered around town for a while and waited for our friends to arrive in Hamburg to say goodbye. While we waited we went into a café and I ordered coffee for us using four of the nineteen German words I know! I was very proud! When they finally got there we took some pictures and said farewell. Sarah and I then tried to navigate the Hamburg Airport. It wasn’t that hard. As a matter of fact, we were so early that we ended up being some of the first ones at our gate. Sarah was getting sick in the process and really not excited that her first time in Paris would be remembered as a sick time.

Ca RE-Recommence!

For those of you still keeping up with this blog despite my lack of faithfulness, bless you! Today you will find three blog posts. The first one is the one you are currently reading, the second is Part I of my two week voyage, and the third one is about my trip to Versailles. Each day I post there will be another part of the two week voyage, so there should be quite a bit to read in the near future. There will also be a future post about my trip to Tours in the Loire Valley. Lord willing, I will have all of my trips archived BEFORE I return to the USA. We’ll see how that goes!

As of today there are 25 days left for me in France. I am sad and happy at the same time. I know that once I get home to Amarillo that France will be missing from me like crazy! I will probably also start to use certain French terms like the one you just read. What I meant to say was that I will miss France; however, in France I would say that France will be missing from me. It’s ok; I often speak French using English terms. C’est la vie!

This is my last week of classes and then I will be starting finals. If you think about it, please pray that things go well! Be looking for updates!

Vacances Part I!

Vacation : Finally! I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to write this blog! Cole has been lazy. Instead of going through a day by day replay of what went on, I’ll do like I’ve done before and recount the good stories.

Deutschland (Germany):
As you know, I started off in Germany. In order to get to Germany I took a train from Caen and then caught a connection in Paris to Hanover. I took a sleeper train. It was a fun experience. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but I definitely was happy to do something I’ve never done before!

When I got to the train station in Hanover I couldn’t wait to see my friends! I was almost running through the station! When I got down to the ground floor I looked to my right and there they were! Sarah Stanford was walking towards me with that Sarah look and her Old Navy™ Performance Fleece™ rainbow colored beanie! We walked back to the apartment of our friends from Amarillo Sarah Meyers and Sean. It was still very early in the morning so we all just went back to sleep. After a night on a train, I was definitely still tired! We all slept in the same room on a giant cot that was made out of two mattresses from Sarah’s and Sean’s beds. It was one big happy family! Sara Meyer’s friend Laura was there too. She is also studying in Germany.

When we all woke up we went to the Hanover City Museum. It was a nice museum full of German and WWII history. It was a bit depressing, but nice at the same time. Sara, Sean, and Laura’s friend Maurice caught up with us and hung out with us for the remainder of our time in Germany. After the museum we went to eat at a Kebab restaurant near Sara and Sean’s apartment. We then went back to the apartment and hung out all night.

Versailles!

Today was such so much fun! It is Thursday and we had the day off for some reason so my friend Marie asked me to go to Versailles Palace with her. We left this morning for Paris at 11:49 and got to Versailles (right outside of Paris) at around 16:00. It was my second time to ever be at Versailles, but the last time was over five years ago and I really wanted to see it again!

While at Versailles we got to see the inside of the Palace and take some cool photos. I also got in trouble three times. The first time I was looking out of a window and the little kid inside of me said “OPEN IT!” So as I’m in the process of opening this window a woman’s voice says, “NON S’il vous plaît monsieur !” (NO please sir!) The next time was as I saw a sign that said do not enter. I didn’t understand why the sign said do not enter because I saw several people in that room. I therefore entered. I didn’t get very far before a woman signaled me to the entrance. Oh well. The third time was when I saw that a barrier had been slightly moved and followed some other “naughty” people into a forbidden area. Marie came with me and we took some photos of the “forbidden” rooms. Right as we got to the end of the “forbidden” tour a man approached me and asked if I had moved the barrier. I told him that it was already moved and then he kicked us out of the “forbidden”. I wanted to go back into the other parts of the palace and say, “We saw something you didn’t see! Na na na na boo boo!”

After we walked through the palace we went out into the gardens and walked around. It was a beautiful day! We walked for a while before we got too tired and then decided to find a boulangerie and get some baguette. We found our boulangerie and baguette and then walked back to the train station to see if we could exchange our ticket for a later ticket back to Caen. When we looked at the time tables and talked to the lady behind the counter, we discovered that we already had the latest ticket back. We then had to hurry to get back into Paris and to our train. As we were waiting for the train to take us back to Paris we ran into a very nice old lady that insisted that we sit with her on the train. She was SO nice! She talked with us for a while and asked us all sorts of questions. As we got off at the station in Paris she decided to walk us to metro to show us how to get to our train for Caen. As we were walking she decided that we needed to hurry so that we wouldn’t miss our train. She started walking so fast and weaving in and out of people that Marie and I almost lost her. When we got to the Metro she kissed us goodbye (the French always kiss on the cheeks when they say goodbye) and wished us a bon voyage.

We made it to our train on time and enjoyed a nice relaxing ride back to Caen. I was so happy to have gotten to spend the day with Marie and enjoy Versailles! Tomorrow I’m going to the Loire Valley to meet up with my friends from Baylor and see the Châteaux (castles).

For some reason or another this internet is not letting me post photos. I have a lot of things to share with you, but I can't do it right now. PLEASE stay tuned!

La vie en Rose!

You must forgive me! As usual, there is an excuse and it’s always the same one: I haven’t had internet in a while! The last time I came to the café, Microsoft™ Word™ wouldn’t work and I wouldn’t write the blog post. I don’t have a whole lot of time today to recount everything that went on in the past two weeks, but I would like to give you an actual update!

This past week was great! I started back my classes this Monday. Last weekend I was very much ready for the semester to be over and come back to the United States after spending time with my parents in Paris (BE READY FOR THAT STORY)! I started to count the number of weeks that rest before I come home. However, when I went back to class on Monday, I started to realize how much I am going to miss France! It’s strange! I don’t want to stay, but I don’t want to leave! It’s very bitter sweet! The day before yesterday, (Wednesday), I went to the gym and didn’t even workout! En fait, I worked out a little bit, but for the most part I stood around talking with my gym friends. We stood around and talked for about thirty minutes! It was awesome! After that I went back to the house and expected to have dinner with the Grousiers with little miss Benedict in her teenager mood as usual! That wasn’t the case at all! After dinner, I started to ask Benedict some questions and she and I talked for over thirty minutes! It was the first real conversation I’ve ever had with her! I don’t think she hates me as much as I thought! After dinner I got the opportunity to hang out with Rachel, Linden, Jonathan, and our French friends! We stayed and hung out with them until four in the morning! IT WAS GREAT! After that I went home and slept, only to wake up the next day and spend the entire Thursday with them! We didn’t have class on Thursday because May 1st is Labor Day. I even had dinner with them at a nearby “Texas” restaurant! We stayed out until midnight thirty! I LOVE FRANCE! I LOVE TEXAS TOO! Oh how I’m torn! One of these days I’m going to move my entire family and all of Baylor to France! I might even bring Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio along as well! That would be “La vie en Rose!”

Today I went to class and then out for lunch with Linden, Rachel, and Jonathan. We had Kebabs! Now I’m here in this café alone listening to Country music! Ironically, I’m listening to a song about a girl who’s parents sent her more money ;)!

CHINOISE!

Here’s a little story I forgot to tell you last night: Last Friday, I was in my grammar class when we decided to take a break to go to the bath room and get a drink. The bathrooms in this particular part of the university are coed. That means that there are girl’s toilets in the same room as the urinals. I was using the men’s portion of the room when a lovely little Chinese girl from our class came in the restroom. When she entered she said, I kid you not, “Cole, can I see?” WHAT? I about lost it! My American friend Sarah was in the restroom at the same time and she couldn’t believe it either. When I was finished doing my business I went to wash my hands while my lovely little Chinese friend was using the toilet. I went to dry my hands right as she was coming out of the toilet closet. As she made her way to the sink, she passed by my Greek-like body and stuck her hand up my shirt. She was probably highly offended when I about jumped back two feet and up another ten! The only thing I could think to say was, “Well, looks like more grammar!” and then I left the restroom! Later on that day I saw her at the tram stop and she grabbed my arm saying, “Ooo! You have a little bit of muscle!” I’m never wearing that t-shirt again around her!

Today, Monday, was good. I’m feeling better and just randomly decided to go to Germany Thursday!!!!!!! I’m going there to meet my childhood friend Sarah Stanford from Texas and then fly with her from Germany to Paris where I will show her and her friends around! YAY! I’m SO excited! After she leaves Paris, my parents are coming! MOMMY! DADDY! The next two weeks are going to be a riot!

Other than that, I went to class this morning where we talked about if we would ever marry a person from another culture. I told the professor that I would, but that my mom wouldn’t like it very much. She only wants me to marry someone from Amarillo. Oh well! When it came time for my lovely little Chinese friend to tell the professor who she would marry, she told the class that she was looking for either a German or an Italian. All of my American friends that knew the story were saying under their breaths, “OR AN AMERICAN!”

After class I went to the gym and then home for dinner. Now I’m here again, talking to you instead of doing my homework! See you soon!

Le Monde!

Because of my lack of internet access and my perpetual sickness, I have obviously been absent from the internet for a few days. That means that instead of writing this blog in accordance with days I will write it in accordance with events. Here we go:

Hélène: First and foremost, I finally decided to talk to Hélène about the un-invitation into the family room. Last Tuesday I went downstairs before dinner and had the following conversation: (keep in mind that the conversation is being translated from French to english)
Moi (me)- “Hélène, I just had a quick question about something that happened last Saturday.”
Elle (her)- “Yes Cole!”
Moi- “I was a bit confused when you told me that I couldn’t be in the family room. I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to go in there!”
Elle- “Oh yeah, you understand that we use that room almost as an extension of our bedroom. When Louis-Henri comes to visit he sleeps in there and when Benedict practices the cello she doesn’t like anyone to be in there including her brothers.”
Moi- “I understand, but I have to admit that I was a bit shocked! I had no idea that I wasn’t supposed to be in there! Nobody ever said anything!”
Elle- “Did I not tell you when you first came?”
Moi- “No, you didn’t.”
Elle- “Oh, I am so sorry! That’s my fault!”
Moi- “Like I said, I was a bit shocked… ok, I was very shocked and that’s why I went to my room for the rest of the day.”
Elle- “Oh no! I wondered why you were so quiet! I just thought you were tired!”
Moi- “No, I was shocked!”
Elle- “That’s why you didn’t come down when the company arrived! You usually run down stairs any time friends come over!”
Moi- “No, I was hiding.”
Elle- “I am so sorry!”
Moi- “The reason I went into the family room to begin with was because I saw that you were busy getting ready for the company and I wanted to get out of your way. I could have gone to my room, but you understand that there isn’t really anything in there for me to do. There’s neither internet nor television!”
(I figured she’d tell me to read a book!)
Elle- “That is a shame that the internet doesn’t work anymore! Any time you want to watch T.V, just let me know and we can set aside some time for you! I just have to make sure that the kids have a place to work and that I have a place to work when I’m getting ready for my classes.”
(I’m thinking, “Whatever!” by this point.)
Moi- “Ok, thank you very much!”
Elle- “Is there anything else Cole?”
Moi- “No, that was all!”
Elle- “Ok, we’ll eat in about five minutes!”

After that I felt better, but still think it’s a bit ridiculous that I can’t use the family room. I recently received an e-mail telling me that when she asked if I wanted to watch a movie, I should’ve said “oui” and then sat down at the entrance to the family room in the doorway. This same person also encouraged me to clog the commode out of revenge! You know who you are and I am very proud of you Adam!

Cussing Professor: The other day my professor was trying to explain to our class something that the President of France said in public that was highly looked down upon. In order to explain it to the fullest, he said, “It’s like if President Bush said, ‘F*** YOU!’” I just about fell out of my chair! He saw the expression on my face and said in english, “Sorry!”

Weekend: This weekend Louis-Henri came back into town. Last night Linden came and ate with the family and I and then the three of us; Louis-Henri, Linden, and I, went to La Foire. It’s a local carnival that comes for one month every year. When we got there we rode an attraction that made Linden almost wet her pants with excitement and Louis-Henri almost wet his pants with fear. I thought the poor kid was going to puke! Linden and I then got on this huge arm that goes in circles really high into the sky. It was fun and we had a great view of Caen! Today, Sunday, I went to church and when I left it was SNOWING! WHAT’S THE DEAL!?!? The past few days were beautiful, but today it snowed. I don’t get it!

Sick: I am still sick! I think it’s a virus! If I’m not better in the morning I’ll go back to the doctor. C’est la vie! I have to make sure that I’m better before my parents come to visit! I’m so excited to see them again!

Malade!

I’m sick again! AHHHH! I went to the doctor yesterday because I had to get him to sign something for my insurance. I had to wait for an hour and a half! While I was waiting I must have picked up some sort of disease from the others sitting in the waiting room! If I don’t get better soon I’ll have to go back and wait for another hour and a half! AHHHH!

Yesterday, other than going to the doctor, I ran some errands in town. I had to go to the bank, go to the insurance company (twice) and to the doctor as mentioned before. I didn’t have much time at the gym, but I went anyway. The speaker in the dressing room still doesn’t work! HA HA HA! When I came home Hélène asked me if I wanted to watch a movie with her and Yves-Marie. I WAS INVITED INTO THE FAMILY ROOM! Alert the media! I politely accepted the invitation. I don’t think that I’m going to talk to her about the “family room” issue. Like I said before, I don’t think she knows that she was rude. She was stressed and her daughter was trying to play the cello (it sounds like a dying cow). I’ll just have to get over it and go on with life. I never went in there that much anyway.

We watched a movie that took place in Québec (which means that everyone spoke French with an accent from Québec). I couldn’t understand a word. I just sat there getting sicker and sicker. When the movie finished I asked Hélène if she had anything for pain. She was very sweet. She gave me a pain pill (like Tylenol™) and some sort of liquid called Acti Soufre™ (it tastes like sun screen). I then went to bed and woke up wanted to shoot myself!

Today I went to class and the professor couldn’t talk because his voice was so hoarse! Something is going around and I do not like it! After class I studied for a test that I had in the next class. I wanted to fall asleep on the ground in front of God and everybody! I took the test without any problems and then I had lunch. I ate with my French friends that I went out with the other night! It wasn’t easy to talk to them because I couldn’t hear anything because of the junk in my ears! It wasn’t just French that I couldn’t understand. My friend Marie said something to me in english and I didn’t understand a word she was saying!

After my final class of the day I went home and slept for two hours. I then had dinner with Yves and Benedict because Hélène and Yves-Marie were in town for Yves-Marie’s birthday. Now I’m at the café with Rachel who has brought me some cold medicine! Thank you Rachel!

Je = I

Sunday: I went to church this morning with the family for Benedict’s confirmation. It was extremetly boring! Yves was sitting next to me and he fell asleep. He wasn’t in a good mood because we lost an hour of sleep do to time change. You’ll just have to get over it little Yves! Life happens! If I can’t go in the family room, you can stand to lose an hour of sleep! I’m a bit bitter if you haven’t noticed.

After church we went home and had lunch. We ate rabbit. It (honestly) tastes like chicken! I know mom, why didn’t we just eat chicken!?!? Oh well, the guests were very nice to me and we easy for me to understand. Either they spoke very well or I’m just able to understand French a lot better than I could before. After lunch I said goodbye to everyone and congratulations to Benedict before I came here to the café.

Moi, le Pauvre

Saturday : Saturday was an awkward day. I spent most of the day in my room in front of a computer with no internet. What joy!

When I went downstairs in the morning to eat breakfast Hélène was running around getting ready for her parents to come for Benedict’s confirmation at church on Sunday. She must have been in a bad mood because she said something that wasn’t all that nice. Here’s the story:

Keep in mind that not all families are the same and that just because my mother is the best mother in the world doesn’t mean that all of the mothers in the world are exactly the same! After I ate my breakfast, I went into the family room to watch television. As I was watching, Benedict came into the room to practice the cello. She started to take the cello out of the room so that I could watch the T.V., but I insisted that she stay and asked if I could use the internet (in the same room) instead. She started to set up her cello while I was logging on to the family computer to check my e-mail. For some reason the girl decided that she couldn’t practice with me in the room, so she took her cello into the living room. I thought, “whatever! I can’t do anything about it, so why try!” While Benedict was setting up in the living room Hélène came in and asked me if I could be done with the computer in about 5 minutes because the floor in the living room was too slick for the cello. That was fine, I had a thousand of other things I could have been doing in this busy life of mine here in France! I told her ok and finished reading my e-mails. She then came in again and said that I need not hurry because Benedict found a place where she could practice. She then followed that by saying, “You understand; this is why we like to keep this room for the family only. Louis-Henri sleeps in here when he visits and the kids do their homework in here. That’s why we keep the doors shut.” I was done. That’s all she needed to say. It was very clear! I may try to seem like a hard nose from time to time, but the truth is that it doesn’t take much to upset me. I went upstairs and waited for the upset feeling to pass and then I went into town.

I know that Hélène wasn’t trying to be rude. I understand that she wants to make sure that her family is taken care of at all times, so when Benedict didn’t have a place to practice, she probably felt like I was in the way. I have to understand that just because my mom treats all guests as if they are a part of the family, I shouldn’t always expect the same thing. However, I’m still going to have a conversation with her just to let her know that what she said wasn’t exactly taken with a grain of salt. One day she’s going to say that to a future exchange student and they’re going to hang themselves and she’ll be held responsible.

When I went to town I found the Lion King the Musical CD at FNAC for €10! This made me a bit happier. I then went home at 18h00 and waited for dinner. WE DIDN’T EAT UNTIL 21H00! I waited for 3 hours to eat when I could have been at the Café using the internet! I was just a bit frustrated. Eventually Hélène came up to my room to ask me to come down and join the other guests that had come into town for Benedict’s confirmation at church. She said that she didn’t even know that I was upstairs because I was so quite. Yeah Hélène! After you told me that I wasn’t allowed in the family room, I pretty much didn’t feel like I was invited to join the family downstairs! Oh well. Like I said, we’ll have a nice little conversation. She is usually VERY nice to me, but that one thing is really bothering me!

When I was finally called to come downstairs to have aperitifs with the guests I got to be a part of a very lively (sarcastically speaking) group of people. We sat and stared at each other while we waited for Yves-Marie, Benedict, and Yves come back from wherever they were. We then finally ate (vegetables). Oh, c’est la vie!

Ben Oui!

Friday: For some reason I love my small grammar class! I have two grammar classes. The first one is a lecture and the second one is a small class with a very nice professor! She makes me love grammar! Thank you Mme. Lévitoux ! After class I went to the boulangerie again and grabbed lunch to eat at the house. While I had lunch I called my dear friend and renewed Chef Sharia Hays! I was recently informed that I will be working in Brooks Flats at Baylor next semester with some AMAZING people! I AM SO HAPPY! I had to call Sharia to say YAY! I tried to call Meredith too, but I ran out of minutes and the phone card wouldn’t let me use my last €0,40! ZUT! If any of you are bored and want to give me a call, dial +33(0)6.42.35.55.74. The 0 is in parenthesis because it is sometimes not needed. 33 is the country code for France and the rest of the numbers are as written. If you have any problems dialing the number, just give me a call and I’ll tell you what to do.

After talking to Sharia I went to the gym where one of the mumblers taught me a new exercise. I felt sort of like a little kid, but he made me feel better when he saw me doing another exercise and asked me how to do it. I then felt like a big kid again! After the gym I went home to eat and then to church. For some reason I just wasn’t feeling it at church. People were getting into it and Rachel was crying while a girl from the Netherlands and I were sitting in the corner cracking jokes about the old foggie song we were singing. Oh well. That happens from time to time! They didn’t kick me out, but there’s always next week! Now I sit here typing and listening to Le Roi Lion (The Lion King)! Hakuna Matata! Ces mots signifient que tu vives ta vie sans aucun souci philosophie !

Le Roi Lion!

Thursday: I enjoyed my life on Thursday! I went to class in the morning (that wasn’t too fun) and then I bought a sandwich and went home to enjoy my lunch while listening to music at the dining room table. I then went up to my room and took a little nap before I went to the gym. After the gym I joined Rachel at a place here in town called Le Vertigo! We met up with some of our French friends that we met about a month ago! IT WAS AMAZING!

The entire evening things kept getting louder and louder, but I was able to understand almost everything that was said to me! The people that we were with are vachement chouette! Ils sont vraiment géniaux! I spent most of the evening talking with two girls and a guy. The girls’ names are Mandy and Maude and the guy’s name I forgot, so we’ll just call him Jacques. We talked all night about different things about France and the United States. They love the United States (like most French students)! They take classes at the university about American history. Go figure! They asked me if I knew certain things about French history and if I could sing La Marseilles (French National Anthem). They were shocked that I could sing it word for word. I thought they were going to cry. We then sang a few Disney songs in French! It was very amusing to think that all of my time waited sitting in front of the computer learning Hakuna Matata in French actually paid off! Hakuna Matata! Mais quelle phrase magnifique! Hakuna Matata quelle chante fantastique! After a while (after they became a bit tipsy from too much alcohol) we went to McDonald’s™. Gag me with a spoon! I bought a salad because the last time I ate a hamburger at McDonald’s™ I thought my insides were going to fall out when I went to the…

After MacDo we went to the beautiful university to my friend Bastian’s room. We hung out there for a while and talked some more. This time we talked about religion. Mandy asked me all sorts of questions because French students don’t have a lot of connaissance (←French word: sorry I can’t think of an english word!) concerning things religious. It was very interesting to say the least.

Afterwards I walked Rachel home and went home myself. I then received a call from my mom at 01h00 in the morning FRENCH TIME! Thanks mom! It wasn’t bad. I was still awake and very happy to hear from her. She told me that she would call me today; however… It’s not quite 01h00 yet, so maybe I’ll have to wait and see!

Lavazza!

Today I went to my Simulation Globale class and we wrote a fake petition for our fictitious lives. At the end of class the professor told us that our homework was to get as many (real) signatures from French people as possible! CRAZY! My friend Helena said that she would just go into random bars and tell people to sign it without asking questions. Tonight at dinner I had Yves-Marie sign it and he wrote, “Mohamed Sidi Ben Basculante” Ben Basculante is a place to put things in your car. He had Benedict write Begzouille la Eripouille. That doesn’t mean anything. After my class I had lunch with friends and had another class. I then worked out at the gym (safely) and came home for dinner.

Before dinner Hélène told me that she had bad news (she was grinning) she announced to me that Louis-Henri would be coming back the week-end after this week-end! I almost tinkled in my pants! LOUIS-HENRI! That’s going to be AMAZING! During dinner Benedict was looking at a horse magazine because she LOVES horses! Yves-Marie jokingly asked Benedict if she preferred riding donkeys or horses. That’s when Yves decided to make the comment, “Who cares? They’re both good for eating!” I thought Benedict was going to cry! Through the rest of the meal he made random comments about eating horses. That’s when Hélène said, “You know Cole; in France French people eat horses!” Thank you Hélène for confirming that stereotype! If I come home and smell something awkward cooking and Benedict has gone so mad that she’s decided to chew on the sofa, I’ll know to eat at McDonalds! For the rest of the evening I listed to Disney songs in French. I need a life!

La Vie Depuis le Dernière Café

Hello again! I’m writing you from home about what happened today because the café closed. It is now midnight plus one minute. I still haven’t done my homework. Oh well. It’ll get'er done! I promise mom! Today I woke up and said goodbye to my dear friend Louis-Henri. He gave me his e-mail address so that I can meet up with him in April. It’s going to be AMAZING! After saying goodbye and crying a little bit on the inside I went to school. Today I had a test in my sociology of the French language class. It was boring! I sound like my brother Carter now! Everything about school is boring! After class I faced my fears and went back to the gym! It was tough, but I made it! I didn’t fall and hurt myself this time!

After the gym I went home and had dinner with the famille. It was sad not to have Louis-Henri there anymore, but I guess Yves and Benedict will have to do! I’m just kidding! You guys know I love you too! Hélène and Yves-Marie had a prayer meeting to go to, so when dinner was over Hélène was rushing to get me my café (I have a café at the end of every meal! Did you hear that mom?). And a banana with yogurt and a cheese tray! I know mom, I “mies’well go spit in tha wind!” I’ll get right on that! After dinner I went to the café to send you more posts. I hope you enjoyed them! If you have nothing better to do, I would recommend printing them off and using them as toilet reading material! OR, if you have a laptop… Anyway, I’m currently two weeks away from a two week break and from seeing my parents in Europe! MY DAD IS COMING TO EUROPE! Please don’t bring your toy trains! Mom, I thought of you today as I passed by a shop called “Aux Ongles d’Elyse” That means “Elyse’s nail salon”. If you have the passion to have your nails done in France, I know a place!

Super Fou!

Saturday: Louis-Henri came back into town to see the family for Easter! He’s my new French buddy! We all had lunch together and then I went to the gym.

I hope you sitting down mom when you read this! When I got to the gym it was leg day so I went to work out my calve muscles. I found two weights and an aerobic step so that I could hold the weights and stand on the edge of the step to do calve raises. When I went to step up on the step it wasn’t as sturdy as I thought it would be. Needless to say, it went flying under me (breaking in the process) and I fell flat on my face letting the weights hit the ground with MUCH force and noise! I felt like an idiot! My new friend from the day before was there to enjoy this little escapade. As soon as I bit the dust, the lady from the front desk ran to the stairs to say “IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT UP THERE?!?!” I wanted to hide under a rock! I even told everyone in the gym that I wanted to hide under a rock! I was SO embarrassed! Imagine falling on your face and then having to explain, in a foreign, to the lady at the front desk why you broke the aerobic step! She was very nice! She told me that she was more concerned that I was alright! God bless her! Her name is Véronique. She is very kind!

After my nice little adventure I went home for dinner and then out with Rachel and Lyse! YAY! We went to a café and then to another café and then tried to go to a Reggae concert. The concert had been moved to a place far away from Centre Ville, so we went to a night club instead. It was hot and loud, but we ordered some Coca-Cola™ and danced a bit. It was fun. Lyse was very nice. After our soirée we all walked Rachel home and then I walked Lyse home. She lives nearby, so it wasn’t that long for me to have to walk.

Sunday: GREAT DAY! This was one of the greatest Easters ever! I went to church with Rachel and Linden and then to church with Yves-Marie, Yves, and Louis-Henri. When we got home there were a bunch of family members waiting in the living room! It was SO exciting! We all had lunch together and chatted! That night I went to the movies with all of the cousins. One of the cousins, Arthur, was very enthralled with the fact that I am American. He asked me if we really had ceiling fans like in the movies. When I said yes, I thought he was going to faint! It was hilarious!

Monday: Sorry, I have to write quickly because the café is closing! I spent all day talking with Louis-Henri and watching movies! This April when I have some free time I’m going to go visit him in Bordeaux! If I will devote a future post entirely to Louis-Henri, but now I have to hurry! Good-bye for now!

C'est Fou Aussi!

Ironic! It’s the same word in French (except that in French it is spelled with a “que” and not “c”). I say ironic because what you are reading is in english, but you know that I don’t want to speak nor write in english. That’s why you don’t receive these posts when they happen. Each night when I go home I recount my stories in French and then go to the Lounge Café later on to translate them. Crazy? Not really. I want to practice my French writing and I can practice my translating skills at the same time. It works very well that way!

Thursday: Carnaval! Religious holiday? Maybe in your county, but in France that is hardly the case! I started my day with my literature class and then I went home to take a nap. After the nap I went to the university for my civilization course that was supposed to start at 16h00; however, when I arrived there was only my friends Amanda, Sarah, and me. We waited for a few minutes for the professor, but he never came. Finally I said, “Well, because we are the only ones here, if we leave before he comes in late there will be no class and we can go to Carnaval with the other students!” That wasn’t quite the case. We left and went to Carnaval, but there was class. Apparently the professor was on the ground floor while we were waiting for him on the 4th floor. Our class is always on the 4th floor; therefore, I don’t understand why he was on the ground floor. He found two other Chinese students from our class and decided to have class in another building. I don’t know why! Oh well! I went to Carnaval with my friends and the other students from the university and it turned out to be much more cultural than a civilization course!

At Carnaval there was a huge parade! It wasn’t like Baylor’s Homecoming parade! It was thousands of students dressed up walking in through the streets of Caen. Everyone was drunk and everyone smoked. There was a guy that approached me and asked (in english) if I was looking for pot. I used the universal word “NO!” To help you imagine this a little better, please understand that I was actually in the parade! I was walking with the other drunken students while they were smoking. It was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen in my life! I was sad that I had left my camera at home! Qu’est qu’on va faire?

After Carnaval I went to the gym and then went out with Rachel. While trying to decide where we wanted to go, I sent a text message to our new friend Guillaume that works at the Lounge Café to ask him if he wanted to go out with us. After I sent the text message I received a call. It was him and he wanted us to meet him in a café next to the university where he was working. I was VERY happy! When we got there a band was playing very loudly. Guillaume was very happy to see us and gave us free drinks! He said “It’s a gift!” Thanks Guillaume! He also said that one night he wanted to invite us to his place for a soirée that would make us remember France (I don’t know what that means, but I guess we’ll have to see!)

Friday : I went to the university as usual and then went home to do laundry. I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR! OUI! After that I went to the gym where I met a man that I see there all of the time. When he saw me he said, “You’re American right?” “Yes” I responded. Then he asked me from where in the United States I was from and when I said Texas someone else said, “San Antonio Spurs!”. We then had a conversation about American sports and Texas teams. The guys knew all of the teams of Texas! How? That is a great question !

After the gym I went home to eat with Yves-Marie. The others had things to do for the evening and I had to eat early because of church. After I ate I went to church where I had a great time! Rachel and I were invited to go to the apartment of one of our French friends (Romain) after church, but when we got to the tram stop the tram was VERY late and we had to walk. Rachel sent Romain a text message and then called him. He was very nice and insisted that we come to see him anyway. When we got to his apartment he was very welcoming. He offered us something to drink and spoke with us for an hour and a half. He then took us home in his car.

C'est Fou!

Bonjour! I am in my favorite café again listening to French music! Mais Oui! I am very tired so please forgive me if you can’t understand what I am writing. Today I had my favorite class in the world; Simulation Globale! The professor is very nice and the class is very fun! It’s the class where I do a role play for the entire semester.

class I had lunch with Marie, Amanda, Helena, and Julia. I spoke in French like usual and everyone did the same. There were a few times when someone would say something in english and I would say, “excuse-me? I don’t understand. I don’t speak english!” Maybe that wasn’t very nice, but if I want to speak French, I have to make an effort! After lunch I went to my media class for a test. During the test someone pulled the fire alarm. Everyone had to leave the classroom for fifteen minutes. During the pause I saw Rachel and we saw one of our friends from Church (Pascal; I have spoken a bit about her before). After the pause I finished my test and went to the gym. After the gym I went home for dinner. We had crêpes with beef and crêpes with Nutella™! Ok, I was the only one that ate crêpes with Nutella™.

Before I leave this café I have to tell you a story that I forgot to post yesterday. It makes me cry a little bit. RACHEL! The girl that Rachel and I met last week wanted to go for café with Rachel last Monday. Rachel sent her a text message to see if I would be able to join them. The girl thought that Rachel asked her if she (the girl) was coming with any friends and responded by saying, “no, I and coming alone, but you can bring a friend if you would like.” I don’t know why, but Rachel thought that meant that she wasn’t allowed to bring me along. After the café Rachel called me and I asked her to read the text message to me. When she read it to me I said, “RACHEL! She didn’t say that you couldn’t bring anyone, but that she was coming alone and that you were welcomed to bring anyone you would like!” I’m going to kill her! Oh well! It’s not the pain of death. We’re going to go out with this girl (Lyse) Saturday night.

Je Peux Épeler Pâtisserie!

When I started to write this post I was very happy. Now, that is not the case. After I was finished writing this post for the first time, I changed the keyboard into French for some random reason and I accidentally closed the document without saving it. STUPID! I want to punch myself in the nose! What I wanted to say was that I was very happy. I was thinking God for the fact that I can speak French and for the fact that I am in France etc… I promise, it was much more poetic the first time! Now, you are stuck with me being all frustrated! I will try to be nicer.

Today I started my day with a baguette and a croissant; both were full of Nutella™! I only wanted to baguette, but Benedict approached me in the dining room and asked if I wanted a croissant as well. You know me! I never say no when it comes to food! When I got to school I had a bit of a stomach ache. Ben, qu’est qu’on va faire ?

After my class I met the mother and the grandfather of Phil Cristensten at the train station. Rachel was there as well. Before they arrived Rachel and I were speaking in French. When they arrived I had a bit of a hard time speaking in english. It wasn’t that big of a deal. After a few minutes I was an American again. It was a great day! We showed them le château de Guillaume le Conquérant and our beautiful university (the university is next to the château unfortunately)! After that we had lunch in a pâtisserie called Paul. It was a true French meal! After lunch we showed them the route back to their hotel and Rachel and I walked back to centre ville for some café.

At the café the waiter spoke with us and asked us for our names. Rachel was very happy because she was saying beforehand that she wanted to know his name. We see him all of the time! After a bit of conversation we exchanged phone numbers and he had to leave. Rachel, full of caffeine, decided that one day we will be good friends with the waiter and one night after the café is closed, we will dance on the tables while listening to music. I don’t know what the waiter put in her coffee, but I know that for some reason she was super excited!

After the café I went to the gym (the music in the locker room still isn’t working!) and then back home to get my laptop and return to the café to use the internet. I translated all of my posts from French to english and checked my e-mail. I am sorry; I didn’t have time for facebook. When I was finished with my blog I hurried home because I was late for dinner. I called Hélène to apologize. It wasn’t that big of a deal luckily! After dinner I watched a couple of shows with Hélène and Yves-Marie. That made me very happy because I could understand everything they were saying on the TV! My French is getting better with each day! One of these days I will be completely fluent!

Oo la la Désolé!

Français ! Français ! Français ! The last four days have been completely in French! That means that for four days I haven’t spoken a word of english! Of course, there have been a few words, but not one complete sentence and especially not one conversation! That makes me VERY happy!

Last night I went home to eat with my family. Louis-Henri was still there; therefore, I had to pay close attention to what he was saying! That isn’t easy at all! After dinner I watch “the Pursuit of Happiness” again because Yves wanted to watch it and I wanted to watch to improve my French. While watching the film, I didn’t my homework for Monday morning. After the film I went to bed early for the second time in several weeks! However, when I woke up this morning, I was still tired. Qu’est qu’on va faire ?

Today I had my writing course. Usually this is very boring, but for some sort of reason it wasn’t that bad. I sat next to my friend Sarah from Pennsylvania. I spoke French with here and she responded in French! When she started to say a few things in english, I told her that it was necessary that I speak French. She understood and agreed with me that if I want to truly speak French, I must make an effort! Those are the words of my life here in France! “IL FAUT FAIRE UN EFFORT !” After our writing class, Sarah walked with me while speaking French to our second class of the day. When we got there, our friend Marie was there, but she was very sick. She was suffering from allergies. La pauvre! She wasn’t in our first class, but she was there for the second one because we were supposed to have a test; however, the professor decided to do it tomorrow. I’m sorry Marie! After the second class, I ate with my friends Amanda and Helen (Amanda – USA and Helena – Finland).

At lunch Amanda was speaking english, but when I started to speak French, the girls did the same. It was the first day in several days that I had lunch completely in French! Merci Dieu ! After lunch we went to our third hour of writing. While walking I thanked Amanda and Helena for speaking French with me during Lunch. Like Sarah, they agreed with me that if I want to truly speak French, I must make an effort! Words of life!

After class I went to the gym where I saw a friend from Wisconsin. As usual, she started to speak english with me; however, I spoke back in French. She decided that that was a good idea and did the same. She was also in agreement with me that if I truly want to speak French, I must make an effort! She is SO right! After I worked out, I went into the locker room where there was American music playing on the radio. Nobody but me was in the room, so I found the speakers and unplugged them. It was so liberating!

After the gym I went home and watched TV. Yves came home soon after and I gave him a hard time as usual. He has really become like a little brother because he teases me all of the time! While we were eating I spilled my glass of water and never heard the end of it! Yves was full of jokes! I responded to him by saying, “and you’re perfect?” « SURE ! » he said. Then he went to his room and brought down a book called, « Mister Perfect ». In your dreams Yves !

Tomorrow I will meet the mother of my friend Phil Christensen at the train station ! Phil is the Community Leader that replaced me this semester and his mother is coming to Caen with her father to see the Château de Guillaume le Conquérant. That means that I will speaking english for a little while; however, after that, FRANÇAIS! I promise!

Oo la la!

Friday night I was invited to eat with two friends from church, Jérôme and Kemmuel. We ate at the university. The food wasn’t very good, but the conversations were all in French! Rachel and Linden were invited as well. While eating, Rachel saw a French guy eating alone next to us. She asked Jérôme if it was acceptable to speak to strangers. He told her no; however, she did it anyway. While Rachel was speaking with her new friend, Jérôme said to me, “Tell her that it’s normal to ask for a telephone number after you meet someone new!” I didn’t say anything because this guy interested her very much. I didn’t want to interrupt her. Go Rachel! Go Rachel ! Go Rachel ! It was extremely funny ! After dinner, we went to church for the réunion of students. There was a guy there with a guitar and a lot of students (for France)! We were about ten or fifteen!

After church, I went home to sleep and sleep in! When I got up, I went downstairs to have breakfast (it was already noon). When I got downstairs, Hélène reminded me that her son Louis-Henri would be coming today and she invited me to have lunch with them. I said “OUI” like usual and she thanked me for saying yes before she even told me what we would be eating. I didn’t care! I’ll eat anything (except for fish; but she already knows that)! When Louis-Henri arrived he spoke VERY fast! TOO fast! I could comprehend about every other word.
After lunch I went with Hélène, Benedict, and Louis-Henri to take Benedict to church and pick up Yves. After that, I ran around the hippodrome by the house and watched a rugby match on TV with Yves. After that, we ate. During dinner, Louis-Henri spoke very fast again and Yves was mad for some random reason. After dinner, Louis-Henri, Yves-Marie, Benedict, and I watched the film, “the Pursuit of Happiness”. It’s funny to hear Will Smith with French a voice-over!

Pfft!

Bienvenue chez McDo! If you can imagine this, I am sitting in the middle of a beautiful French downtown in a three story McDonalds™! The internet is free, so I came here today with my friends Julia and Marie. John Kitch, I just got through eating a BigMac™! I think I’m going to throw up!

Good news, the internet at the Lounge Café stopped working! STORY OF MY LIFE! I went there last Tuesday night with Rachel only to discover that the patron hadn’t paid the bill. When I went to pull up the Baylor homepage, I received a message giving me the option to pay the bill. I told the waitress and she got her boss to come and look at it. When he went to get his computer, the option to pay the bill did not come up for him. He therefore had to take my computer and pay the bill with his credit card. I now have all of his information and have to e-mail it to him. C’est la vie!

Before the adventure at the café I had another little pleasant adventure in the rain. Hélène told me that there would be a group of prayer and praise for college and career students at a local Catholic church at 20h45 Tuesday night. So, after dinner, I grabbed my coat and umbrella and walked from the apartment to Abbaye aux Hommes. On my way there, the wind almost knocked me over several times. It was crazy! When I finally saw the towers of the Abbaye I got very happy; however, when I actually got to the Abbaye, the lights were off and the doors were locked. I just laughed. I looked around the back to see if they had met somewhere else, but all of the lights were off. I called home to see if Hélène knew of any other place they might be, but I was unfortunately out of luck. I went ahead and walked to Saint Pierre to see if there might possibly be something going on there, but it was the same situation. No lights and all the doors were sealed. I’m sure there were cameras watching me walk all over the city in the rain like an idiot. I decided to go home and get my laptop to go to the Lounge Café to do some homework and that’s when I realized that their internet wasn’t working any longer. When I left the café I got all the way home (almost an entire mile away) and realized that I had left my laptop adapter at the café. I therefore walked all the way back to the café in the rain and luckily got my adapter right before they closed. I got quite a bit of exercise that day!

Earlier that night at dinner I got the opportunity to make fun of Yves as he grabbed an apple and asked his mother to peal it for him. I about died! I asked him how old he was just to verify and Hélène just laughed as she took the apple and PEELED IT! I told them that if I had asked my mother to peel an apple for me that she would have said, “the maid died!” I now make fun of Yves every time I think about the time he asked him mother to peel him an apple.

Wednesday night dinner was served at almost 21h00! It seems that Yves tried to call his dad to tell him that he would be getting another ride home from Rugby practice, but Yves-Marie did not have his cell phone. Yves came home, but Yves-Marie was still at the Rugby club waiting for him. They tried to call Yves-Marie to tell him that Yves was already at the house, but he still didn’t have his cell phone. We waited and waited, but the time just kept getting later and later. Hélène finally brought me some peanuts to keep me until we ate. Hélène finally decided that we were just going to have to eat without Yves-Marie. Benedict and Yves wanted to wait, but Hélène was too hungry. Finally Yves-Marie showed up, but was surprisingly not mad. Dad, you would have killed me! Before dinner, Hélène had given me a tin of cookies to apologize for the fact that I had to wonder all over town looking for a group that didn’t exist. It was funny.

Last night (Thursday) Linden and Rachel came over to the house for dinner again. Hélène invited them. Anne Caroline (the girl that ate with us this week) was there too. It was very fun and funny at the same time. There were times when things were said that only the family and I understood and then there were things said that only Linden, Rachel, and I understood. Linden just finally turned and spoke with Hélène for about an hour. Yves-Marie was getting very tired. We finally all decided to leave and said goodnight to the Groussiers.

We had been invited by some of the people in Andrew’s class to hang out with them for the night. We went and enjoyed their company for all of five minutes before they all started speaking english with us. (I’m sorry Grandma, I refuse to capitalize the word english any more!) Rachel and I were livid! We spoke French amongst the two of us even though everyone was speaking english. After a while everyone decided to go to some dance place, so we went along just to see. Two friends from Baylor came in to visit Andrew, so they got to experience a real French outing. Rachel and I were sitting around the table with the others at the dance place and all we heard were French accents speaking the english language. Finally Rachel just said, let’s go dance. We did, and we enjoyed ourselves (IN FRENCH!) When we were leaving, we said goodbye to all of the French people and one guy translated everything I was saying in French into english. If he only knew! If you are in the USA right now and you speak another language, I am very proud of you, but please DO NOT speak that language with any foreign people trying to learn english! It’s RUDE! I went ahead and walked Rachel to her house nearby and we spoke French the entire time! When we got to her house, we talked for at least another thirty minutes in French about how much we hate it when French people speak english with us. It was very ironic. We then talked about how were afraid that we would go back home and forget everything.
Last night I had another dream that I was back in the USA speaking english again. This morning I woke up in France! It must have been a nightmare! When I did wake up I was thinking things in French! I therefore decided that I would not be speaking english all day. It has worked so far. People are speaking english to me, but I’ve not responded in that language. As a matter of fact, I’m going to have to leave McDonalds™ soon because my friends are only speaking in english. I don’t think they understand that I want to throw things at them when they do that. I’m going to go to the gym! I hope I get the opportunity to write again soon! We’ll have to see! For now, I’ve had enough english.

Deux Jours!

I am writing to you from the beautiful Université de Caen! Oh how the cigarette butts contrast with the beige concrete buildings and graffiti! I’m on my lunch break, so I just found a plug and popped a squat in a building named, “Vissol”. It’s where most of my classes are held.

Sunday evening, I went to the cinema with Rachel and a friend of her French family named Xavier (za-vee-ay). Xavier is a high school senior that tutors the son of Rachel’s French family. We saw the film Paris (pair-ee with a French ‘r’). It was a very French film. What do I mean by that? It didn’t make a whole lot of since, and the end was left to the imagination. American films usually have some sort of happy ending or big moral, but French films are always ended with a bit of mystery. I actually like it. It takes some getting used to, but I like it.

Monday (yesterday) started off with a wonderful two hours of expressive writing. IT’S MY FAVORITE CLASS! Think again! After that class I had an hour of oral expression and then lunch. At lunch I got to eat with two of my French friends. One of them looks exactly like my hall director last semester in Penland (Hey Peter!). As a matter of fact, I walked into the cafeteria, looked across the room to see these two students, and though it was Peter. I almost ran to give him a hug and then remembered that I was in France. C’est la vie! After lunch I had another hour of expressive writing and then went to the gym. There I met a guy who always wears cloths with something about California. I’ve seen him in there several times and have always wanted to ask him about his California clothing. This time I finally just said, “Toujours Californie!” (Always California!) He laughed and then took a seat next to me to tell me about the time he studied at UCLA. I then said, “J’imagine que tu peux parler anglais!” (I imagine that you can speak English!) He told me that he could, but that I probably wouldn’t understand him. He also said that he wouldn’t speak English to me because he knows what it’s like to learn another language with people only speak your native language with you. It’s very frustrating!

After the gym I went home for dinner and saw that we had a guest. Some girl who is a friend of the Groussiers is visiting Caen and will be eating dinner with us every night this week. She’s studying to be a pharmacist here in France. She was very soft spoken, but very nice all the same. After dinner she joined the family and I in front of the television to watch a series called “Père et Maire” (Priest and Mayor). It was a good show and a good way for me to learn French! After the show it was bed time.

Every once in a while I walk by Yves room to go to the bathroom and I hear American praise and worship music playing. I burned him a CD of some Christian songs that he wanted and now it seems like the only music he listens to. He was very excited when I gave him the CD and now he wants more. They don’t have any good modern Christian music in France, so it’s very nice for him to hear Christian music that isn’t Gregorian chant or a hymnal.

Tonight after dinner I will be going to a prayer and worship group at one of the local Catholic churches. Hélène told me about it, so I figured I go and see what it’s like. Maybe I’ll meet some nice French Catholics! You never know!

PS: Some of you were asking what my address is here in Caen. I have been so bad about responding to messages and e-mails because of my internet issue, so here it is:

Chez M. Mme Groussier
24 Rue PAUL TOUTAIN
14000 Caen, FRANCE

La Reine!

Saturday. Happy day. HIGH SCHOOL DAY! ALERT THE MEDIA! As you may know, I am forced to go to a French café every day to use the internet! It’s horrible! I’m just kidding; forcing me into a French café is like trying to feed a Twinkie™ to a group of kids at a fat camp. It’s just not that hard! Today: pfft…(That’s the noise the French make when something isn’t worth discussing). Rachel and I met up at Saint Pierre for lunch and café. We landed in the same internet café, but this time it was plein (full) of high school students. If you’re a high school student, please know that the Lord loves you, but please understand that I would prefer that you stay home when I’m trying to enjoy my life in a French café! As we were enjoying our time in this café, a mob moved in to take up all of the places next to the outlets. The computer was dying and Rachel was crying over the amount of people present. We had to speak very loudly to hear one another, so they all knew that we were crazy Americans. At one point I said, “The prom queen will be coming through that door any minute now!” Five minutes later… (Insert the song “Dancing Queen”) the prom queen and her court arrived (flowers in hand)! I kid you not; a girl walked in with three friends all holding bouquets of flowers! I thought Rachel was going to throw a spoon at her head! She withheld her anger. Ok, maybe I was angrier than she was, but nonetheless, WE LEFT!

We went to Rachel’s house to use the internet, but for some reason my blog wouldn’t come up! That’s why today you get to read two blog posts! YAY! I then went home for dinner and then back out again with Rachel to make another effort. That makes number 1,234,354,987,368,21 and 1! Maybe I’ve exaggerated, but it feels like more than that even! We walked around and even sat down in a few cafés and bars before we decided on the right one. We ended up in the same café where we first met our old French friends who abandoned us the next night. We found a place in the middle of the room and waited! At one point an older couple sat in the empty chairs next to us. We were SO mad! We prayed that they would get a hot passion for one another and leave the room! THEY DID! YAY! But, then a group of smelly guys took their place. It was like beating a dead horse! Oh well! We left and went home for the night.

This morning (Sunday) Rachel was supposed to go on a trip to Honfleur, but missed the bus. I got a call at 9h35 saying, “Cole, I’ll see you at church.” I was happy to hear that I wouldn’t be there alone. Linden never goes and Jonathan went to Paris. I met Rachel at the tram stop and also ran into my English friend Carley and a French girl that we had met the other night at church. Her name is Pascal. We all walked to church together and enjoyed a VERY good sermon! After that, Rachel and I went to town to eat with Carley and our friend Magali. We then ended up back in the internet café where the Lord spoke!

After Magali and Carley left the café, two blond French girls walked in and took a seat. I told Rachel that she needed to potty and stop for a casual conversation. She’s such a good friend! I sat at my computer while Rachel went to town! I wasn’t exactly sure what they were talking about, but I do know that on their way out, they handed Rachel a phone number and told her to call them for a soirée! SCORE! Too be continued…! (PRAY THAT THIS SEQUAL ISN’T AS BAD AS THE LAST ONE!)

C’était en Français!

Right now I’m writing in French. You’re thinking, “What? This isn’t French, it’s English; I can read it!” But you’re wrong! Now, I am writing in French! Maybe by the time you read this I will have translated it into English, but for the moment, it’s French. Why am I writing in French for the first time? It’s because tonight I want to dream in French. Tonight for the first time in my life I want to have several French dreams. Also, I was in the process of speaking and thinking in French before I came back to the apartment tonight when I decided to write something for my blog. This isn’t an easy thing to do if I wish to continue in French so that I might dream in French. If I continue to think in French, I can’t write in English! What should I do? Write in French!

Today was very good for my health! I went to my grammar class (ok, not everything was good for my health) and then I went to the Lounge Café for coffee and use the internet. I went with my friend Amanda, Rachel, Andrew, and Marie. It was nice! We talked and discussed for several hours! After that I went to the gym and then back home for dinner; however, I didn’t eat. When I got home, no one was in the process of cooking anything. There was just Yves-Marie and Benedict. Yves-Marie was looking at photos of trains while Benedict was watching television. Hélène wasn’t there and Yves was at Rugby practice with his rugby team. I waited until 19h45 (7:45pm) and then I decided that I had to leave for church that would be starting at 20h00 (8:00pm). I said to Yves-Marie, “I have to leaved now.” And he said to me, “You’re not going to eat with us?” I said, “No, I can’t. It’s already 19h45 and church starts at 20h00.” He then said, “Oh, that’s sad! Have a good evening!” When I got to church I was crazy hungry! Too bad (as the French would say)!

At church Rachel was there for her first Friday service. After the service, we went to the basement for coffee like usual. After everyone had finished their café and snacks, my friends Jérôme and Kemuel washed the dishes. I went into the kitchen to speak with them. While talking with them I learned that when Francophones speak French they don’t have an accent, but when they speak English, I think, “OH MY! THEY’RE FRENCH!” C’est marrant ça ! (Sorry that doesn’t exactly translate!)

After the dishes were done, the guys decided to be a bit mean to the girls. Rachel lost her shoe while trying to kick a soccer ball and Kemuel decided to steal it for a game of “Keep Away”. It was very funny and very good for my French! Kemuel is probably one of the funniest people in the world! In the past I didn’t think that would ever be able to understand French and converse in French, but after tonight, I KNOW that it’s possible! THANK YOU GOD! It was midnight before we left!

After church our friend Magalie took Rachel and I into Centre Ville so that I could eat. We then met Linden at Saint Pière so that she could eat as well. We then decided not to speak in English for the rest of the night. After a night at church like this one, I didn’t want to adulterate it with English. While eating Rachel said to me, “Cole, cover your ears! I must say something in English!” I did and afterwards it was nothing but French. MAIS OUI! After Linden and I had eaten, we ran into our friends Marie and Julia (Julia from Norway). We decided to walk together to look for a place to hang out. We were out of luck because all of the places were closed. So, we said goodbye and now I’m back in the apartment typing in French! It’s 7:39pm (in Texas) and I am VERY tired! Good night!

Après-Midi

I’m back in the café that has internet. It’s called “The Lounge Café”. They’re very nice here! I just wish the café were free! Mom, send café money! I’m just kidding! It’s been a blessing to come here all the time. They play good music and have very comfortable seats! They even have pillows! I just want to throw them at someone when they walk in the door.

Yesterday I had a class called “Civilization”. We learned about women’s rights in France. In order to ensure that we fully understood what he was saying, the professor drew the female anatomy on the board as well as a condom. My friend Min from China didn’t quite understand, so I just leaned in and said in English “IT’S A CONDOM!” She speaks English, so she fully understood. She then went on to draw one in her notebook for her own reference. It was funny.

After class I went home for dinner. It was a fun dinner as I explained to the entire family my issues with meeting French people. They enjoyed the stories and were very nice to tell me that it wasn’t my fault, but that French people are just very hard to meet. Hélène and Yves-Marie move a lot because of his job, so they’re used to having to deal with this issue. They said that when they came to Caen, they had all of their neighbors over for a party and not one of them called them back or invited them to their place. That’s apparently how it is here in Normandy! Hélène said that she was tired of making an effort, but that since I’m young, I have a better chance. She’s right! Last night ended up proving that making an effort is worthwhile!

You might remember that a couple of weeks ago I was approached by a crazy French student exclaiming in English, “YOU ARE AMÉRICAIN!” That same student and his friends invited me over to their resident hall to hang out for the evening. Rachel was invited as well, so we went and spoke French for over three hours! Before that Rachel and I had gone out into town to find French people. We ended up in some random bar by the university where we sat AT the bar next to some old balding drunk man and ordered hot chocolate. It was quite the show! We were glad when some real French people called us! Because Rachel had class this morning at 8h20, she felt the need to leave at around 2h00. (WHO DOES THAT?) Right before she left she said to me, “I know you’re in Heaven and all, but what time to you think you’re going to head out?” I then responded, “I’m closing the place down!” I was right! The place was well closed when I left. Before I left, I was invited to have dinner with them next week some time. They want to get Rachel, Linden, and I together to cook for us! I have a feeling that if I’m persistent, I will finally have real friends in France! PRAY HARD!

After hanging out with the Francophones, I went home and crashed. When I tried to wake up this morning I ended up pushing the snooze button too many times and had to cut my daily twenty minutes of Nutell™ heaven in half. Oh well. I went to my grammar class and enjoyed three hours of pronominal verbs. (AHHH!) Now I’m back in the café talking to you! I hope things are going well in your domain! Keep me updated!

Je Reviens

I must apologize! I finally brought my laptop to the university to update you! Let me just say, this internet thing is going to be the death of me! There are now three brand-new stories to read! I’m sorry that it has to be this way!

Yesterday was interesting. As you may know (from reading the previous “brand-new” stories) I have been sick. My head feels like it’s going to explode. I finally went to see a doctor, and let me just say, things are NOT like they are in the United States! First of all, when I showed up, I looked for a place to sign in. That’s not how it works. You just sit in a room with all sorts of random other people and wait for the doctor to open the door and call in the next person. This means that you have to remember what order you came into the room. When it was FINALLY my turn, I was made to come in and explain my problems in French. This wasn’t too bad except for the fact that I was feeling like hammered doodoo and my throat was inflamed. This makes for a difficult French conversation. She gave me some prescriptions and filled my others then sent me on my merry way.

After the doctor I went home to lay down for a little bit. I couldn’t fall asleep, so I got up and got on the computer (NOT THE INTERNET! – sad face). I then had dinner with just Yves and Benedict while Yves-Marie and Hélène went to the cinema. We had some meet and CRÊPES WITH NUTELLA™!

After dinner I went out with Andrew to an apartment with some of his French friends from his business classes. It was semi-fun. Everyone spoke English, so it was like spitting in the wind for me to speak French; however, I ended up speaking French to them and they spoke English to me. One of his friends, Hervé (you might remember him from a previous post) tried to hook me up with this girl named Alexia. She was nice, but I don’t think it was a good situation to meet her. There was loud music and everyone was smoking. I finally went home and caught the last tram back to my tram stop (Quai de Juillet (kay de jwee-ay)). I was still feeling sick, so I fell right to sleep.

Today I have been feeling better, but I’m still a bit under the weather. Now I’m sitting in something called La Maison d’Étudiants (It’s like the SUB at Baylor). I’ve been having a conversation with a few friends (in English) discussing our experiences in France. We’ve been talking about how annoying it is to meet a French person and have them ask you “Do you like Bush? Which kinds of AMERICAN music to you listen to? Do you want Hillary or Obama to win? I want to go to the USA! I can speak English!” I want to launch those people to the moon when they start in with those comments! Now I’m going to lunch and maybe tonight I will hang out with some French people! On va voir!

Ego

Lego my ego! Today was definitely a day that stroked my ego! First of all, my professor came up to me in my culture class and said, “Because I noticed that you can speak French really well, I want to give you a supplementary article to read if you would like.” I was a bit embarrassed because she said this in front of the entire class, but I was SO enthralled! ME? SPEAK FRENCH? You’re kidding right? Surely she was hearing someone else speak! After that class, I went to the gym and had a nice workout. After working out I had a short conversation with the two ladies that work there. One of them goes to the same church as me here in Caen and so I had the opportunity to talk with her a bit. While I was talking with her the other lady said, “You speak French really well!” Like I said before, she must have been listening to someone else! I objected, but she just kept on insisting. She then said, “I also love your accent.” Now that’s nasty! American accents are not attractive! They sound like a Ford™ Tempo gasping for its last breath of carbon monoxide. But hey, whatever works! It is true that Americans like French accents, but I find it hard to believe that the inverse is true. Who knows, maybe my accent will find me a wife!

When I got home, Yves-Marie and Yves tried to help me figure out the problem with the internet. Yves-Marie tried to call the internet company and ended up handing the phone to me. I was a bit shocked, but was able to understand what the person on the other line was saying. I don’t know how that happened, but it did! ALERT THE MEDIA! After our nice little internet escapade with no positive result, I had the supreme opportunity to eat with just Yves! It was SO fun! After an hour or so of conversation I forgot that I was speaking French! This was ego booster number four. It didn’t matter what I said, he was all ears. He started talking about how much he wants to come to Baylor to study. I then told him that he would need to practice his English. We tried to practice a bit, but the conversation soon switched back into French. He is VERY timid and afraid to speak English in front of me. I basically told him “You’re gonna to have to buck it up cowboy! Ain’t nobody in Texas gonna speak French!” He wants to come and hangout with my American friends one day to try and hold a full conversation. After a short failed attempt at English, I showed him some American praise and worship songs. He was very pleased and told me that he wanted to copy them and blare them on his stereo. He’s not used to hearing that sort of music in the churches he attends. We then had a very nice conversation about dating and having a relationship with someone who wasn’t a Christian. As you may know, his girlfriend doesn’t believe in God, so things are going to be very interesting when they start to talk about his Catholic beliefs.

Had it not been for God’s blessings upon my ego, today would have been a terrible day. I am currently sick and came home after my morning class to take a three hour nap (missing my very boring grammar lecture). My ears, nose, and throat are inflamed like none other! It’s going around. It was bound to hit me! It always does! I found some pain and inflammation pills from Baylor, so maybe that will help! Tomorrow I will try to hit up the doctor’s office on campus!

Escaliers

Seventy-seven! That’s how many stairs I climb every time I come back to the apartment. I could take the elevator, but when I’m actually seventy-seven years old, I will be willing to give anything to be able to climb seventy-seven stairs every day!

Tonight I spoke with my family about the internet and Yves found a code for me to use. I’ve not received it from him yet, but we’ll see what happens! Today started off a bit slow, but eventually picked up and ended up being a very nice day. At the beginning of the day I was feeling down, but the Lord blessed me at lunch by allowing me to run into some of the French friends that I had met two weeks ago. One of the guy’s names is Démen and he was the one who approached me when I was getting food. He just came up to me and asked if I wanted to hang out sometime soon! YES! My words couldn’t come quick enough! I then asked him and the other two guys to sit with us and eat. They did! Praise the Lord! I hope that things start going somewhere!

After and my afternoon class I got my very first French haircut! I look so good! They lady started by shampooing my hair and messaging my scalp! AMAZING! She then took her time and gave me a very nice European look! I’ll add some photos as soon as I have the internet again. She then only charged me €15 (€3 less than the advertised price)! I’m going back there!

After my haircut I went to the gym and then home for dinner. We had meat! I was very pleased! I then discovered the secret behind the lack of meat in the past! Hélène revealed to me that they only eat meat for lunch! Who does that? Anyway, we had a nice dinner and I helped Yves with his English work. He had me read some story written in British English that would have made absolutely no since to me if I hadn’t taken years of English courses. I don’t know how he understood! After dinner I went to a bible study with my church. Can you say hide me under a rock? Four Americans: Andrew, Jonathan, Rachel, and myself, all speaking French (or making an attempt to do so). For some reason it just wasn’t working for us. At one point I tried to use the verb accueillir (to welcome: pronounced ah-keu-year) and ended up saying ah-quee-ear. You should have seen the looks on those people’s faces! They were perplexed! I tried to cover it up, but the damage was already done. Out of over seven years of learning the French language, one would assume that I would know that all words with the letters “q” and “u” make a “k” sound. Québec is pronounced kay-bec and accueillir is pronounced ah-keu-year. I’m an idiot! Oh well! Live and learn! That’s what they say!

After bible study we went to the Lounge Café and met our friend Guillaume. One of the first things he said when he saw me was, “HEY! I read your blog!” How did that happen? Guillaume, if you’re reading this blog right now, please grant me pardon for any faux-pas I might have committed in the past fifty-five posts! I promise you I’m getting better! We had a nice evening and enjoyed talking about French pop music and Religion! Nice combination!

Conversations Intentionnelles

The rest of yesterday wasn’t too bad. I went to the house of my friend from Norway. She and Marie were there with one of Marie’s friends from Mexico and a friend of Julia’s who is visiting from Norway. We had fun as we ate really good tacos and listened to some music. I got up and danced and they all thought it was insanely funny. They recorded it with the cameras on their phones and on their digital cameras. If you see me on the internet, please look the other way! After that we went to some club that was very boring. We just sat and talked. Julia and her friend from Norway (Cecelia) decided to leave and find a better place to dance. Marie, her friend (Eli), and I just stayed a while and talked. After that I went with them back to the university to get my things from Marie’s room and start my two mile walk back home. Here I am now. In my room without internet! Oh well! Tant pis as the French would say!

Today I went to church with Jonathan and Rachel. We rode the tram to church with our friend Carley from England. Church was very nice. One of the songs was called Emmanuel. It’s the same tune to a song called Emmanuel in the USA, but it was obviously in French. The reason I mention this song is because it has sort of been the theme of the past few days. Emmanuel means God with us. When Rachel and I met those three French girls, you might remember that one of them was named Emmanuel. Rachel pointed that out to me. I know that things have been tough, but I also know that God is with me. I don’t know what the heck He’s doing, but I know he is here! A friend of mine (JOHN KITCH!) recently reminded me of something I used to always say: If would be rude if God gave you a passion for something and never allowed it to be fruitful. That isn’t to say that God is rude by any stretch of the imagination, but that if God weren’t God, then He would give useless passions. God is God; therefore, His passions are always intentional. I hope that is understandable! In so many words, what I’m saying is that something good will happen! Just wait!

I’m in that café again with my friend Carley from England, my friend Dion from Jamaica, and Jonathan. We’re just here hanging out and enjoying the happy English music playing in the background. Because I have to come here for the internet, please understand that if I don’t post one day, it’s not because nothing happened, but because I am a bit restricted! I will write something every day in my temporary blog I have saved in word, but I won’t always get to post it right away. Some days I might have several posts from several days, so always look back to see if anything happened previously. I’m still a bit taken by the fact that the internet won’t work, so I will be having an intentional conversation with my family tonight at dinner. €23 per day is a lot to have to pay just to sleep in a room! Without the internet at the apartment I’m not able to call anyone from Skype at midnight in France. I guess I could walk down to Centre Ville and hope the café wifi is on at midnight, but that would be quite a bit of trouble! If you’re used to talking to me on Skype, please forgive me for never being online! I’ll do my best to fix things! I’m an American right? I’ll see what a little American complaining does, but I’m not guaranteeing much. You might receive another ranting blog post, but I’ll pray that the necessity isn’t such!