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!