ITALIA! more specifically, Roma :)

Ok. Well. I am here. It was difficult knowing if we would make it here, aka if our trains would be running, but they were! So we got to Paris in one piece, then got on our first overnight train. We were in a couchette, which is a small room that converts into 2 triple bunk beds. I was super fortunate and got a top one, because although harder to get to, there is more room. There were 2 italians (a young couple), and an American girl in the room with us! We got to know the American girl right away and eventually started talking to the Italians. The girl had been learning French for a while so that is how we communicated haha. The boyfriend only spoke Italian, but he could throw in a French word every once in a while. So we talked for quite a few hours about Italian culture, and words, and the like. Then we converted the seating area into the bunk beds and promptly fell asleep. Well...

Let me tell you something about sleeping on a moving train. It is not easy. The bunk beds had reinforcing straps that were on the outside (2 of them), and they had dual purposes because well...the train made lots of stops, and with each stop and start, my body jolted. Now when you are sleeping, and suddenly the bed you are in moves, if you are on your side for example, your entire body flies in the according direction. So although it was not a sound sleep, I did sleep, haha, such an interesting experience. We slept through the night, and had about 2 hours of awake time before we got to Rome, so the long 13ish hour train ride was no big deal!

So we get to ROME! We connected with one of Chelsea's friends and he graciously said we could throw our bags at his place. So we got directions, and headed off with the bus system to find his apartment. I am not one to use buses. I love trams, and trains, and metros, but buses, for some reason are a different for me. It was crowded. Italian crowded. But the man squished up next to me was nice and informed us when we got to the correct stop!

After dropping our bags, we started! It was around 1:00pm by this time so we knew it would be a rush day. We headed straight to the Pantheon which was near by. It was beautiful . Massive, ancient, crazy.

After. We went to Capitol Building and saw the Victor's Monument, the Forum, and Colosseum! It is hard to describe in words how wonderful these were. Yes, even though it was off season, still packed with tourists, a lot of Italian tourists actually. But the enormity of the things in Rome is just overwhelming. Everything is just ancient, and monumental, and just, yes. We spent quite a while in the Colosseum just observing, listening to free Rick Steve's podcasts.

Time to check into our Hostel! We found it pretty easy and had to buzz them to open the door. A lady comes to the door, and after leading us inside, explains that her friend/co worker overbooked and the hostel is full, however she lives on the same floor and said we could sleep in her spare bedroom and pay nothing! And get to use a private bathroom (hers). She was nice, it was a bit fishy, just because the whole overbooking thing, being in Italy thing, but we really had no other choice. So we said thanks and we would be back later that night. And we prayed that we would not be like the movie Taken, her being an accomplice of course.

So we head to find dinner. We walk and get all the way to the Spanish steps, with more people crowded in one place than we had seen yet, holy cow, and we were at the top looking down. Then we walked back and stopped in this mini bar/restaurant. The waiter ushered us inside and sat us down. We ordered some pasta and drinks (Genesis-wine, me-expresso, Chel-Latte Macciato), and as we ate, he brought Chelsea and I out mini shot glasses of wine to test it haha. He was really nice and liked us. So we left there, eating some lovely Italian pasta, a bit overpriced though (but we were in a touristy area), so understandable.

Spanish Steps. Beautiful, and a great view of the HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of people. Holy cow. couples, and vendors, and just people. It was quite entertaining. So we just sat and ate some Gelato for around an hour or so, people watching. Super relaxing and entertaining. THen we window shopped, even though the stores were closed, and went and picked up our bags from the friend before heading to our free hostel night.

Well our room was massive for 3 people, and we got a free towel! (Not included at a lot of hostels unless you pay). She was so nice and even offered to let us use her computer. So we showered and got ready to sleep. And might I say we slept well. Minus being a bit chill chill. Shmeh.

Us modeling our free hostel room! Haha

Some of the masses at the base of the Spanish Steps

Colosseum!

Planning Italy

Well, it has been a hectic past few days. I just finished packing to leave for Italy tomorrow, and surprisingly, my backpack is lighter than it was when we went to Paris the first time! My packing skills have improved (aka I have learned from the soreness of my back).  Needless to say, getting to Paris has been a bigger ordeal than I had originally imagined. We have been planning this trip for a few weeks, and apparently, the people of France were planning to strike at the exact same time. We found this out last week when the strikes started (then they took a break and started back up yesterday), but all you can do is wait and see if you will be affected, because you never know how big the manifestations will be. 

The plan has been to leave Thursday, come back the following Tuesday. We get Monday off from school, so we would only miss a few classes (Friday is an easy day). So this past Tuesday, we checked in online for our 2 flights (there and back), printed our boarding passes, and printed dozens of good maps of various things in Rome/Pompeii that Rick Steve’s (a wonderful travel helper) gave us for free online! He writes travel books, guides, gives classes on travelling, takes travel groups too, and is the most entertaining, useful, theoretical travel companion. I borrowed his book of Europe from a friend, and it is most enjoyable to read, and packed with useful information and shortcuts! He also has free podcasts for your iPod that are tours of various famous monuments and sites (we downloaded 12 different ones!).

Well I got going on Rick Steve's, but back to the day. After printing all that, Chelsea and I headed to town to find super compact umbrellas for our trip, and then headed back. My Volleyball was cancelled…again…sad face. For the sake of being a healthier person, I hope the strikes stop soon! The school was blockaded for a few days this week too, more vacation for French students!

So get back to my room after all this and suddenly get a text from Genesis “Our Flight has been cancelled”. WHAT. I text Chelsea, then look into it online. Sure enough, the Air Traffic Controllers at the Airport we were flying out of were going to be striking on Thursday and Ryan Air had to cancel our flight. We could choose 2 options from them. Get on the next available flight for free, or refund. We looked and the next flights were already booked, so refund was the only option. But we wanted to go to Italy! So the next option to get there? Train. How long does it take? 19 hours total. Did we want to do that? YES. We go from Caen to Paris. 2 hour wait. Paris to Rome. There was a train leaving Thursday afternoon so we decided that would do nicely. We planned to wake up and run over to the SNCF (train) office in town the next morning.

So we did just that. I explained to my teacher what was going on and she understood my urgency. So off we went. However, the train was full!! NOOOO. Next train out was on Friday afternoon. We said we would think and come back. After deliberating, we decided that we really had no choice! After all our planning and booking of hostels (and a return flight!), we decided that even though we would lose a full day, we had to get to Italy! We went back to the SNCF office and booked the train.

Now, just classes, packing, and waiting. And that brings us to now. I checked the status of our trains online, and from what I can tell they are running, but I won’t rest assured until we are actually on the 2^nd train from Paris to Rome, with it moving. Haha.

I don’t think I mentioned this in my last blog, but I got a package from my parents! After a big kafuffle with the shipping company wanting me to fax them this paperwork to Paris (where they held my package hostage), it finally arrived! I got peanut butter, Flintstones vitamins, my converse shoes (they are insanely popular over here), winter jacket, Laura Pennington’s French Dictionary, some make up I forgot, and a sweater! I don’t think I covered everything. It was so lovely to get, and I have been enjoying my peanut butter, among other things, all week. Well, next blog, I will either be in Italy, or sadly wishing I could have been.

Strikes

Well, what have I been up to the last few days? Lots!

In this past school week there have been so many strikes. Especially the young people, who like to join a cause and rebel just for the heck of it I think, the college students are more likely to be interested in WHY they are striking, but the high schoolers, just want to break stuff.

So, on Thursday, I ran a bunch of errands, went to class, felt productive, then Chelsea and I were going to try and get her some groceries, but the trams had stopped running coming to our stop because of a disturbance that had happened at the previous stop, the one in front of the main campus. So we walked down there to see what happened. CHAOS. High schoolers had come down and burned massive piles of trash and trash cans (meaning melted rubber) on the tracks making it impossible to bypass. The cops with their turtle armor and shields were there and a pane of glass on the tram stop had been shattered. I think we were about 15 minutes or 20 minutes too late to see the real action because no one was fighting or anything, just the police keeping a perimeter around the damage. So we just watched for like 10 minutes haha. We ran into our French friend and chatted with her for a while. (She said my French as greatly improved!) After, Chelsea and I were going to go to this Pop Rock Choir Concert thing, but it was cancelled because of the strikes :( So I watched some French films instead :) so relaxing.

Friday was a beautiful day and so after class, we decided to go shopping in town for a bit with Genesis! I actually only got a scarf and headband, but it was nice walking around. I was looking for Converse, who knows if I’ll ever find them, and did not succeed... After that, we went our own ways to chill for the evening, and I got back to my room ready to just relax, clean and the like. I don't know if I’ve talked about my neighbor yet, but she came by the other night and told me how she is learning English and is having a difficult time in her class! I told her I would love to help her whenever she wants, and so that was nice to be able to meet her. We see each other all the time in the kitchen, so now it isn't just an awkward "Bonjour” or "Bon Appétit" hah. She is from Guinea? Not sure, a country in Africa. Anyway, last night she came by my room to see if I had a skillet because she was frying fish, however the only one that Noelle and I have was in Noelle's room, and it did not work with the specialized burners in our Dorm. Later, I went in the kitchen to wash some things, and I commented how her cooking smelled good and she replied that she would let me try some when it was finished! I was excited and went back to my room to prepare my own dinner to cook. Well in like 1/2 an hour she came to my door with a complete plate of food! HOLY COW. It was beautiful. I was stunned, how generous and nice of her! I thanked her and pretty much just stared at it in my room because I was in such awe. Wow. IT was a piece of fried fish, caramelized onions, fresh onions, fresh tomato, fresh cucumber, and little bit of spicy mayonnaise beautifully arranged on a plate! (Pic at bottom). And it was so delicious. I don't think I've ever eaten a piece of fish completely to the bone before, but I did. Anyway. I watched Shawshank Redemption in French, and then slept wonderfully with the plan that Chelsea and I would go to Mont-Saint-Michel on Saturday!

Well, I awoke around 6:15, got ready, and Chelsea came over to check some stuff online before we headed out. It started POURING rain outside. Welp. No Mont-Saint-Michel. Again. This is the 2nd time we have tried and failed to go, so we are going to go with the CEFE program in 2 weeks because it is around the same price, and we will get to see St. Malo, another neighboring town too! So Saturday, which is today, has become a complete relax day. I have been in my room all day. Cleaning, Cooking, reading, relaxing, watching part of a French movie here and there, napping. The weather was nasty until around 5pm so there wasn't much else to do. I could have ventured out to find Converse, but that was not appealing to me in the least.

I love coffee. The 40 cent coffee machines here are so wonderful. You get just enough coffee to be enjoyed without risking too much caloric intake, a wonderful boost of energy, and yeah, I love it. However, I think they are confused with what a Cappuccino is. Here, it is basically hot chocolate mixed with espresso, which is what I would call more  a mochaccino..But either way, delicious. I have tried just the espresso plain, which I then add sugar too, but it is a bit too strong for me.

I love it here. I don't like thinking that I am half way through my time here already. I am not tired at all of learning French, of being surrounded by a foreign culture, or being in a tiny dorm room with 1/2 my normal possessions. Life is just good! I do miss my Church community however in Waco, and my friends and family of course, but I have actually never been overwhelmed by that. I think the fact that I know I'll be seeing them in 2 months and this time here is limited keeps my focused on enjoying every single second. People say you will have culture shock when you are here, and also reverse culture shock when you come back to the states. I know I will have reverse culture shock, but honestly I don't know that I had any actual culture shock here. Yes there are things here that I learn every day that are different, but nothing, even if shocking to me, remains with me or disturbs me to the point of emotional breakdown hah. I guess that is a good thing.

My wonderful plate of food!

A Spontaneous Weekend

A quick written recap of my video blog.

This weekend Chelsea and I had an impromptu trip to Paris! We went to the train station expecting to go to Mont St. Michel, but because of the numerous strikes, that train was not running, but there were a few to Paris! SO we decided to just hop on one and spend the day there. We arrived and headed to the Louvre, because we had not seen even half of it last time. So we spent a few hours in one section of it, looking at French paintings and Egyptian artifacts for the most part. Very interesting! After we took the metro to the Catacombs, but were too late (long line and closing soon) again, so we headed to Napoleon's tomb! That was an impressive sight.

After, straight to Champs Elysees to do some window shopping and see the Arc de Triomphe up close. Win.

And a few hours later and we were headed back on a crowded crowded train because of the strikes happening. We had caught the last one back to Caen, along with everyone else. So needless to say, we were lucky to grab seats, but others were standing for 2 hours. Overbooked much?

And we got back to Caen safe and sound! I love Paris. I love being able to zip there for a day trip and not spend too much money. I love France!

I can't say it enough. I thoroughly enjoy being here, hearing French all the time, speaking French a lot of the time, experiencing a different culture. SO interesting and wonderful  :)

There may be a video in this bloggy :)

The past few days have been super funny and eventful in regard to culture and just, French experience I guess? Ok. Where to begin.

Tuesday! Well in our speaking class, we got paired up and had to fix a jumbled up conversation in order to act it out (all the lines were in a mixed up order). I was paired with one of the guys in our class from China. After we got done our assignment I thought I would not let this go to waste and asked him about China. He apparently loves to talk about it! (In English however haha). But he was so funny because the teacher doesn't want us talking English so he would speak in hushed tones, and constantly look over his shoulder like he was doing something illegal hahaha. And that completed the conversation because he started talking about the censorship in China, the CCP, and the overall control there haha. It felt like the CCP was watching us there because he was so cautious haha. So funny. But super interesting! I love how open he was about the flaws of his own country. The teacher was amused though because she would come over, and I would explain how we were speaking in French (I was anyway), and we got started talking about Texas and George Bush (who he automatically associates with Texas haha) and she thought we were so funny for discussing all of this. She also joined in for a second and gave the general French opinion on Bush and Obama haha. Which is along the lines of Nay and Yay.

So that was fun. Then after, I ran to get some workout clothes with Chelsea, and we ran into Ed on the tram so he joined us. After, volleyball time! I met up with the older lady that I partnered with last time, and she immediately took me over to our bags and gave me a bottle of homemade, French Cider! SO nice of her. :) She had mentioned she would bring me some last week but she the fact that she followed through with it was such a nice treat. We partnered for a while, and then we got in lines and got to spike some! I hadn't done that yet so it was so fun! Yayyyy volleyball. We had been doing that for around 20 min when the teacher came up to me and asked if I wanted to move to the more advanced court of people who were doing something a little more advanced. Of course I did! So I awkwardly moved over and tried to integrate myself. Didn't talk much. I don't even think they knew that I was American. Which is saying a lot, most people find out immediately. We started a game and at the beginning I felt very much so like the weak link, but slowly started to get my game and we had a fun time. :) Got my serves over! There were 2 girls on each team, and when in the front row we often were the setters, so that was fun to be able to set up a guy for an awesome spike.

Wednesday was another eventful day. I took a nap mid day, slept too long, and was 10 min late to class...oops hah. In our speaking class, we were doing the same thing as yesterday, but with different scripts, and this time, I was with my Chinese guy partner, and Chelsea. So we edited the script for 3 people, but then realized that the Chinese guy and I had missed another assignment to do from yesterday because we were talking about China and Texas too much haha. The teacher told us to improvise a 3rd conversation in front of the class. IT was supposed to be in 'interview'. So I was the interviewer, and Interviewed Chelsea and the guy for a tourist guide job, so each represented their country respectively. When I got the question about the leader of the country, I couldn't call them both presidents...so in French I asked "Who is the President, and or Dictator, in your country?". HAHA...oops. The teacher burst out laughing and said "KAITLYN that is taboo you can't say that!" I did not understand because I was not asking his opinion of his dictator, just his name! After going back and forth and the entire class non-stop laughing, it finally came apparent that I was not supposed to call him a dictator because that already opinionated and labeled my opinion of the leader hahaha. OOPS. But the Chinese guy called him one in all our conversations so I just thought it all natural. I was a tad embarrassed haha...but we all laughed it off. The teacher could not let me forget though haha. Oh my goodness.

After that fiasco, Chelsea and I headed to MacDo to get some Wifi and plan if we were going to take a trip to Italy in a few weeks! We stayed there for around 3 hours. Goodness. So long that we missed going to our Boxing class on accident!

Today I had my final appointment to seal all the paperwork for my visa (finally...it's only been a MONTH), and therefore missed my first class. After, Chelsea and I planned some more Italy, and figured out that Genesis was going to be able to join us! Yayay I’m so excited! Then, time for speaking class again! Today we were going around Campus to interview French students. Such an awkward concept. However, the girl I was paired with and I, we spoke to more than 6 people, and they were all SO nice. Some people did not have time, but everyone was so nice and patient and let us ask questions like, "What was the last film you saw in the theaters", or "Where did you eat for lunch", past tense type questions. I ran into one of my French friends so we interviewed him! And after, we randomly interviewed a girl that was American! Fluent in French, and I think getting her Masters here? Super nice also :)

After. MacDo again to plan. We bought our tickets to get there! There were only 3 left...so we had to haha. Italy in 2 weeks!

This is my MacDo Latte Machiato Caramel!(That is foam not whipped cream at the top) :)

The Past Few Days

Yes I semi-failed again with blogging consistently. Heh.

So the last few days and weekend were very nice! The weather cleared up for a few days and it made for a good travel weekend :)

So Friday, Chelsea and I went to the Mediatheque (mini library) and researched where to go the next day. We knew it would be close, and looked at Mont Saint-Michel, or Bayeux. Now having a rail pass that guarantees 25% off all train tickets, and many times it will be 50%+, round trip tickets to Mont St-Michel would be around 25euro and to Bayeux, only 6euro (it was 15 min away). Bayeux it was! We were looking up times when this American guy in the CEFE program approached us. Garrett is his name, most likely spelled wrong...and we talked for a while about the French program and travelling around. He showed us a few good mini towns around Caen to go exploring and we talked about how we were going to Bayeux.

For the rest of Friday, Chelsea and I went into town, did a few errands, ate some delicious ice cream, and at 6:55, realized we had forgotten about the 'Youth' Group happening at the Church at 7! Fail. Next week. So I headed back to a relaxing night.  We invited other friends to go with us the next day but they wanted to wait for the scheduled trip with the CEFE program because it was guided (but also 25euro!). Fair enough!

We planned to leave for Bayeux around 9 and ran into Noelle and Ed at the train station! They were on their way to Mont-Saint-Michel at the same time! Funny coincidence. SO our train ride was super short, we were the first stop, and we hopped off, suddenly realizing we had no clue where we were going, or really what we were going to be doing in this town.

The only thing Chelsea and I had heard to do was go see the "Tapestries" and there were some memorial things to do from D-Day. Whelp. None of that is near the train station. Just a few roads. Haha...awk.

We see a sign that points to a tourism office down the road and so we start walking. It is a BEAUTIFUL day, so we were soaking up the sunshine and just enjoying our mini-adventure. On our way to the tourism office, we saw big buses with old people exiting, tour buses! We knew they would know where they were going, so we started to follow them, and the Tapestries were right there! Perfect.

So the Tapestries are really this really long sewn picture story from William the Conqueror. It tells how he went from Duke of Normandy to King of England with I don't even know how many scenes, 40 something maybe? 70 something? A lot. You walk through a tunnel type thing and it is on the wall lit up. And as you listen through a mini headset, someone recounts and interprets the story to you! Super super interesting because you get an excellent history lesson combined with fun ancient pictures. This happened almost 1000 years ago? or more? I wish I knew my facts haha, but you can just Google it.

After, we circled around Bayeux for a while, and ran into a massive beautiful Cathedral, which we explored, then got to the tourist office. They gave us a map, and circled where a good Memorial museum and cemetery was for us to visit. But it was noon, and the memorial museum closed for lunch, so we had 2 hours to find some food and relax in the sun. As we were walking trying to find food, we looked across the street and who do we see? Garrett! Hahaha, we run over to him and he joins us for lunch. We go to a Pizzeria and just talk for long while. Then the three of us head to the Memorial Museum.

Even though I only absorbed around 10% (maybe) of the information, I feel overloaded. Bayeux (Caen too), are right where the D-Day beach invasions took place during WW2, and this museum was dedicated to remembering all the Ally soldiers who liberated France! Super interesting because you are learning about something that happened right where you were, to the people around you. So much different than learning about it in a textbook in North America, even though Americans were involved.

The Cemetery was so interesting too. Multiple nationalities, but the plot is actually American soil, the French gave it to the US in honor of the liberation. I found 2 Bates names in the directory, and one of them, from England, had a long story of how he saved a battle by charging with a semi-automatic weapon and fending off the enemy for a while, eventually being shot to death during the attack. Crazy.

By this time it was almost 6pm, time to head back. We grabbed some ice cream (a tradition I've decided...) and headed to catch the 6:30 train back. Wonderful day :)

Sunday we headed to church and then the market! I then had a relaxing day in my room napping, doing laundry, and the like.

I still want to speak more French. Being surrounded by it is great. I can understand incredibly more than when I first got here, but the speaking is still the challenge. Class is all French yes, but it is also not challenging enough. No, I am not doing everything perfect and No I do not know EVERY answer, but I have covered the material already. And at the pace we are moving, I don't know when I am going to be learning something new.

To compensate, I am formulating a battle plan. Still in the works, but one includes checking out a grammar book from my level from the library and going through it. Then moving to the next level. Also, I am contemplating asking my writing teacher if there are extra assignments to do. Also, Babel. This program to match you up with a French student would be AWESOME, if it worked. The site has been under construction since I got here. And we asked someone about it, it improved, then the construction has gone stagnant again. Frustrating.

I have started doing more things alone though, and I like it. Before, I was always with someone, and now that life is getting more normal, I can go do errands and the like on my own around Caen (In the daytime always), and expose myself to more French.

Anyway. That is all. I went to MacDo tonight to get Wi-Fi (in French it is pronounced [wee-fee] hahaha) and their coffee is super good. Like Starbucks. Also more expensive, like Starbucks. They are so different here. You have to use a code given to you on your receipt to get into the restrooms; it is 3 stories high, with comfy attractive seating everywhere, and just a cozy environment.

I made dinner that I am eating now. It is potatoes, carrots, and apple pasta. Cooked with olive oil, salt, and pepper. That is my life. And I love eating it every day with a variety of vegetables :) mmmm.

French Boxing?

Ok. So today was pretty normal too, so I shall skip to tonight. Where Chelsea and I were introduced to the world of boxing.

It was at 7:30, so we met 10 minutes before to walk over to the building together. There was no difficulty finding the 'petite gymnase' and we nervously entered, hoping we weren't the only girls there (which we were afraid we would be..that plus being the only americans...oh gosh). But when we entered we were suprised to find a room full of people already practicing with atleast 10 other girls there too! Ok nervousness gone about that.

However, now we were unsure what to do! We were there 5 min early and people were mid exercise! Was that our class? We had no clue. So we sat down to watch. So awkward. A guy came in and asked us if it was boxing, I said I didnt know. So he went and asked the teacher (which we failed to do because of language difficulties), and he joined in so we figured we should too.

People were just bouncing around the room in pairs, kind of, mock punching people/the air. So awkward to join in. Chelsea and I are the type of people that laugh and smile at just about anything, and that is our default face in uncertain circumstances, therefore, we could not stop laughing. Yes we were uncomfortable, yes we had NO clue what was going on, yes we looked like idiots.

The teacher, this short muscly guy, stops everyone, and we do some ab exercises for like, 1.5 minutes, then commence bouncing around again. Then he says something else, which we did not quite catch..and everyone starts walking in the same general direction, so we join in! Context clues get you so far when you have no clue what is going on. They were headed to the closet to get boxing gloves. OH YEAH. It's go time.

Oh and I forgot to mention the smell. Oh.My.Gosh. THe closer you got to the glove room, the worse the body odour was. It was like standing on a crowded french tram, x 10000. I could feel it permeating through my clothes and skin. Yuck.

So Chelsea and I finally got to the room and started looking through all the sorts of gloves hanging on the wall and attempt to grab some. Large, nope wrong size, size 10? Not sure, that works! There was a hole in my thumb part, but I figured it was tucked away and wouldn't matter anyway.

We head out and the teacher is just finishing the instructions, so he comes over to the small group of stragglers, and explains again. Stuff about how to kick, how to block, etc. So we pair up and Chelsea and I attempt to punch eachother? We are stopped shortly there after by the coach who informs us we have the wrong gloves..apparantly the thumb hole ones are only for punching bags...awk. So we head back to the room (I hold my breath), and grab some other ones. Chelsea and I laughed the whole time I'm pretty sure. Boxing is so serious, and, not hateful, but are hitting someone the whole time haha. As uncoordinated as I am, I think I am better cut out for dancing. And that is saying a lot haha. We were too smiley.

But we continue and he would tell us new exercises, and we would practice them, mostly different hitting patterns, like 2 punches and a kick, or other things like that. By our last time, I actually felt like I improved. Not that it was hard to do, since I started at literally, ground zero. The coach had come up to us a few times during the practice to explain various things, and with our nods and occasional "d'accord", which is 'ok', I don't know if he knew we weren't French, although everyone knows, so I am assuming he did as well. If our english or horrible french accents don't give us away, the blond hair does.

So that ended the hour of boxing. All levels were there, and we were definitely in the minority as beginners. But we saw improvement in ourselves. Boxing is so uncomfortable for me haha. It is insanely difficult to protect yourself properly and focus on an attack at the same time. Holy cow. Even 45 min of practice and I will forever respect boxers in a new light hah.

So anyway, until next week, I can practice in my room haha.

Also, I am super sore from volleyball today. And I noticed that when I dove in volleyball, I got a hole in my leggings I wore :(

Sports attire shopping this weekend I guess! Which I haven't seen ANYWHERE...hm..

Volleyball!!

The normalities of today shall be skipped over because I went and played volleyball tonight and would rather explain that :)

So a few days ago the option of paying 35 euro to choose 2 weekly sports activities confronted me. I had the option when getting my student card a while ago, but it re appeared with more appeal. A classmate told me she was participating and doing some workout classes so I decided to look at the sheet. Hmm...VOLLEYBALL. It stood out to me and the fact that there were levels so I could be in a class without beginners sounded SO appealing! So I signed up for that and French Boxing (which Chelsea and I are doing together on Wednesdays).

So my first day of volleyball is rapidly approaching and I am super nervous. Like, more nervous than I was going to my first day of class (which I was not that nervous for..), and I was panicing. I don't know what exactly I was nervous about. I think the fact of being isolated because I didn't speak French was the main thing. I felt comfortable thinking about the actual playing of Volleyball, but the interaction scared me some, who knows how a room full of French people would treat me.
It went from 6:30 -8:30 and as I headed to the building, I realized I did not know where the 'Hall of Sports' was. Hm...I figure it is big, I'll see signs. Wrong. No signs. The people I ask say they think It might be upstairs, fail. Finally grab a pamphlet with a miniture diagram map thing, oh hey, Hall of Sports is a separate builiding behind the one i'm in. And class starts in 2 minutes. Shmeh, being late is better, I can scope out the people first.

So I find the other building with ease, and It has a entire side full of windows, so as I turn the corner I immediately see volleyball ish people and head inside.

There is little ole Kaitlyn standing by herself. Normally I would strike up a conversation with another lonely, but seeing as my French would immediately make that awkward I kept silent. We all rounded together. She called names, I had to focus on each one because I knew she would say mine with a French accent [Cat-lean] and did not want to miss it. Bingo, I heard it!

Ok. TIme to pair up. Dang it. I figured it would just work it's way to where I would see a girl that needed a partner or something, how it always works out, but no, this was not normal life, it was like the movies, I was by myself. I scanned just to make sure, and sure enough, there was an odd number of people. So I warmed up with the wall until the teacher came and added me to another group. They were nice :)

Then an older lady showed up late and I got paired with her. She was graying, but I would say maybe mid 40's? Very active, and when we did 2x2 competitions, we won all but the 'gold' medal round :). Oh and this was the intermediate section. The super good club players were doing their own thing. I am a tad envious because I would love the challenge to be playing with them, maybe she will ask me to move up sometime. Not that I am much better, but the majority of the people I am playing with are serving underhanded and most likely do not know how to do an approach to hit. Nothing wrong with that, just explaining.

Anyway, we continue then get into groups of 4 and do more scrimmage, the teacher by this time knows I speak english because as she walks away from telling me something, a very long explanation about me not hitting it over but setting it over the net, she mentions to the group if anyone speaks english to potentially help me haha. The cat is out of the bag.

I am going to be SO sore tomorrow but playing volleyball was like riding a bike, minus having the necessary muscles, It felt like I never stopped playing. SO fun. Did a couple dives that my knees will be paying for with some bruises, but quickly learned and started doing proper dives. I'm happy I don't have my knee-pads because it will force me to dive better?

During a time when our team was resting, it came up that I was studying abroad with my team of 4. They crowded around (including the older lady) to ask me questions. An interesting question they asked was "What is hard for you here", and I explained that the hardest thing was actually speaking French. I told how my friends all speak English, and even when I meet French people they want to switch to English either because they are trying to be nice and make it easier for me to communicate, or they want to practice their English. Either way, I end up not practicing my French! The old lady then asked If I had tried the Cider (famous in this region), and I said not yet! And she said she is going to bring me some next week! How nice :)

Ack. So basically my nervousness is gone. I love it. Love love love. I knew that it would most likely turn out ok, and it did :) and now I get some super good exercise once a week (twice with boxing hah..)

Welp. I just ate a yellow plum.

Homework time :)

Weekly Recap. heh...my bad.

Yes. It has been a week. It feels like it was only a few days ago that I was in Paris, but no, it has already been a week! Every time I would think about blogging this past week, It would feel pointless because nothing in my day had been even remotely interesting compared to Paris. But I have realized that, it doesn’t matter. I can make anything interesting with the right description haha :). and Here we go.

So here is my weekly recap!

All my classes this week went well. I am still not feeling challenged in my courses but I hope that in the next few weeks it will pick up some. If not, I am going to be studying extra on the side, and I might ask my teachers for some extra work to do on my own time? I don't know if they will have any for me but I might as well ask! Phonetics is still super fun, and I am holding back laughter every time I have the headphones on and am repeating very pronunciated syllables from a funny man. My teacher in my French Oral class (the one who salsa dances) has not ceased to impress Chelsea and me with her daily wardrobe. She has 3 dresses (that we have seen so far), that are extravagantly dancer ish, with ruffles, layers, and just an all around awesomeness. Every day she switches it up just enough to keep it interesting and I think she has noticed Chelsea and I watching as she takes off her coat each day haha...awkward?  Civilization class has become boring...sadly. Our teacher is super nice, and the content COULD be interesting, but there is no class participation, just her talking the whole time (and although that happens at Baylor...it is not in French at Baylor..), so instead I am finding myself with drifting thoughts while my teacher talks about the culture of France, the history of the monuments in Caen, and the various French holidays that are strikingly familiar to the ones in America.

Also, as I write this, I am eating a half baked baguette with nutella (I LOVEEE NUTELLA)...in my room, on a rainy afternoon. I just woke up from a 3.5 hour nap too...might have been too long...oops.

So this week, around Wednesday, Chelsea and I started talking about where to go next! We found an amazing wine festival going on in Italy in 2 weekends and began to research :) heh. And we also had a backup plan to go to Versailles for the weekend (since we missed it on our Paris trip). Friday, we went and asked Cederic (our study abroad 'go to' guy) and he informed us that we can't leave the country yet if it is by plane (which we would be doing if we went to Italy)...so scratch the wine festival. We decided that we would not travel anywhere this weekend we would get some errands done, and just plan instead!

What errands did we have? Well shopping of course! After a chill Friday, we woke up Saturday and hit the town! Even though it rained all day, it was a bustling town. We are so privileged to be a 5 minute tram ride from the center of town with more shops than I will ever see, so we headed down, made a list, and attacked!

IT was wonderful haha. We did not even enter shops that were too expensive however. And the thing I LOVE about French stores is that in all of their window displays, on the floor of the display, they tell you the price of the entire outfit displayed (article by article), so you know immediately if the store is in your price range or not. I managed to grab a few shirts, a sweater or two, and some new grey jeans (my mom will be happy because they will be in a sense, replacing my worn grey ones that she abhors). Scarves have become my favorite clothing article here too, not that I have even bought any (just using the multiple ones that I brought), because they add the perfect extra layer of warmth that just jazzes up your outfit!

So after shopping for the main part of the day, we went back to our rooms to recuperate (short nap and a pear for me), and then headed out to see a movie! We were going to see 'Wall Street', but then realized that there would be a lot more conversation, and less action, it being a money/economy movie, and opted for 'Town', instead. We had heard nothing about this movie and just saw that there were famous people in it...so 4 euro later, we are sitting in a super small theater (like one at a person's house...just kidding not quite THAT small), and were waiting for the lights to dim. Movie theaters here are HOT. We were shedding layers in no time, but I like that better than in the States where you have to bring multiple layers to cover up because it is FREEZING. Anyway, soon the movie started. ACK, I suddenly remembered the movie was going to be in French! Simple brain lapse. They literally dub over the character's voices, so the mouth moving does not match up, obviously, but it is a professional job because all the background noises are there, and when the mouth stops moving, so does the voice haha. But it was SO WEIRD. Ben Affleck did not sound like himself...and it was freaky. At least we did not have to worry about inappropriate language, because we couldn't hear/understand the French version. And it was pretty sweet because we could follow the movie, and any random conversation we had no clue what they were saying, we could just make up what we wanted to happen in our heads! So in a sense, it was the best movie ever, because half of it was my idea :)

Sunday we went to church and saw Lottie, our British friend there again. So nice! After Chelsea and I ran to the market so we could stock up for the week. I wanted to get some Converse, finally, and some lunch as well. Moroccan food? Ok! The guy recognized me and we exchanged smiles and a few comments. And as he was handing me my 5 euro bill change, I most definitely dropped it in his MASSIVE pot of broth. uh...awkward.

He assured me it was no big deal and handed me another one, I'm glad we are friends haha.

Converse stand was out of my size, but they said next week. So I shall wait. And after some pears, potatoes, and carrots, I was ready to go!

That is pretty much it for this week. More photos from France will come eventually when I can get them from other people and hopefully before too long we will be going on another trip!

Homework time, I have my first mini test in French Writing tomorrow, I'm excited :)

Paris Pictures!

In front of Notre Dame! That is Chelsea :)

STARBUCKS (I found it at the Louvre hehe)

Noelle and Chelsea modelling in our Hostel!



Eiffel Tower! The moon is peeking inbetween the legs of it if you can see!



On the Eiffel Tower :) This random side picture was not intended but, pose Kaitlyn pose :)