Sunday, January 27, 2013

Look at How Good I'm Doing

It hasn't even been a full week, and I'm already at this blogging thing again. Look at me go! Anyway, I've been having so many good things going on, I thought I should report them before something catastrophic happens to make me forget all the lovely things.

Firstly, I took my placement test last Monday to find out which class I would be in for my semester here in Besancon, and I was worried that I wouldn't do well on it because I had a semester off from French when I was in Spain. On Thursday we found out the results at 4:30 pm and it was one of the most stressful waits of my life (at least that I can remember). I was the last person in the group of students I'm here with to find out where I was placed, simply because I didn't want to physically force my way through the masses who were also waiting to discover the results. It turns out I got placed in C1 which is one of the best classes, most people in the group I came with usually place in the B levels, so for me to get so high is really fantastic. I've had a lot of my French teachers from back home congratulate me, which I do deserve because it's really a fantastic thing.

On the same line of classes, I've managed to give myself a four day schedule with no classes on Monday, which means I have 3 day weekends ever week :) and on all of my big breaks, I get an extra day. This is extremely good news, since traveling back on a Monday is much cheaper than traveling on Sundays. I'm already making plans on where I want to go in France and the surrounding countries. This is again the part where I beg my mother to find some random stash of money to pay for all these travel plans I want to do.

I'm still in love with my host family, even more so than the last time. Why you might be asking, because they let me cook here. I feel like part of the family. They let me make a paella tonight, and it turned out fabulously, it's the best one I've made so far. They complimented me on it, and said the next time we have it, I have to teach them the recipe. Which means I'm guaranteed another day of cooking!!! And tomorrow I'm making them pancakes!!! WHO DOESN'T LOVE PANCAKES!! I can even make them fabulously shaped pancakes, because I indeed have those skills.

The new girl who is going to be staying with us until July arrived on Friday, and she seems pretty awesome. I've only spent a couple days with her but from what I've learned, she's amazing. She likes Pride and Prejudice, and she's going to teach me how to make sushi, there is nothing she could do to make me not like her. She's also just super adorable, and she takes some of the pressure off of me to spend all my time with Eline, which is really nice. It helps me get some me time, and everyone who knows me, knows I get Hitler-esque if I don't get to be by myself for a bit. She's from South Korea, and the little bits she's shared about it are really interesting. The only negative side of this, is that she doesn't speak a lot of French so we're reverting to English so that she can understand stuff, which sucks for me, because I want to practice my French, not my English skills (I'll get enough of that when I go back to England and find my future husband).

I had my first real champagne tonight, and it was pretty delicious, I might make a tradition when I get back to the states of champagne Saturdays, it's kind of a nice idea. Along with working out again, because oh my gosh the food here, it's so good I can't stop eating, I'm going to gain all the weight back that I lost in Spain, and I'm not ok with that :(.

And not that this is good news, this is just for funsies, but here's a list of all the places outside of France I'm planning on going to. (And no dear family and friends, this is not a shameless plug for you to pick your preferred destination and donate to the Jaci plays in Europe fund. Promise.) I'm thinking of hitting up Prague, somewhere in Germany depending on the time of the semester, Geneva or even possibly some small town close to the French border, Austria, northern Italy, Ireland, Scotland, another trip to my beloved England for two weeks to tour around all the places I've read about in Jane Austen novels, and possibly even back to Spain to say hello to my ama and a few friends who are still there studying. Oh, and I forgot Brussels. How silly of me.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The after effects of chippie chips and gravy

So an update on my incredibly amazing life right now,  I figure I can stick better to once a week rather than like once a day, because not nearly enough things happen for me to fuel this every day. Last weekend I went to England to see a friend one last time before she moved to Australia, and it was kind of the best time of my life ever. I seriously fell in love with that country, which I kind of figured I would. I met quite a few amazing people, who were fabulous. I can now attest that British people make Americans say just as many words to hear the funny accent as we do to them. And it certainly is a new feeling being the odd man out. Of course I ate fish and chips, since it's kind of a requirement when you go to England, and yea, I probably just made that up. I also went out and partied with the Brits, and again fabulous. I loved it so much there, there was one point in time while I was at the train station where I just contemplated going AWOL and staying in England for forever. It was one of those places that just made you feel like you were home. It was a beautiful feeling, and I'm definitely going back some day. It'd even be like the best gift in my life if I could live there, at least for a bit, I've never been so enchanted with a place in my life, and I like to consider myself a bit of a world traveler.

In other news, I start my real classes on Monday instead of these boring hours of "intensive" courses where I learn nothing and doodle in my notebook. I've managed to meet some awesome people here, AND I'VE FOUND A STORE THAT HAS CLOTHES MY SIZE!!! As a fat person in Europe, you start to feel really awful about yourself when you can't even find clothes to cover one of your legs let alone both. So to actually find a store with my size in it, that has things I like the look of, is like the best chocolate on the world on Christmas with a mind blowing orgasm. No, it's better than that. I just don't know any words in any language to describe the feeling it gives you.

I also bought new shoes, please don't tell my mother, she doesn't need to know, and there's something so nice and lovely about a new pair of functional shoes, they're not even heels. They're lovely black boots, that were just calling my name. So I couldn't leave them behind.

I'm still in love with my host family, they actually said I was part of the family the other day, which after the last people I stayed with, almost made me cry. I adore them so much, and the dad is so funny, he has like a direct line to my sense of humor, and uses it frequently. They're letting me cook for them all day Saturday, I am so happy with this that I could explode. Seriously, I get teary eyed from my luck this semester, it's completely opposite from my last experience. And I'm really hoping that it continues for out the rest of the semester.

The only problems I've had so far is a slight bit of homesickness (and I don't even have Jane here to comfort me :(((() along with missing my dog, because who wouldn't miss his adorable little face, and everything is so much more expensive here than it was in Spain. Granted I've had to pay like everything to get here twice because fuck you French government, and that hits a bank account pretty damn hard. Which makes me sad, because well, it means less travel time if I decide to stay with my lovely host family, which I'm really truly considering because I do NOT want to live in the dorms again...ever. Which means no return to England this semester is what it seems like :( oh well, we'll see. If you read this and feel like making a donation to Jaci's play around Europe birthday present you should hit up my mother, she would love to deposit it into my account. And on that note, I've run out of new information and sales pitches, so I leave you until next week, where I hopefully have something interesting to say.

Monday, January 14, 2013

A new beginning

Alright, time to get back into the swing of things here. I know I FAYULED big time during my semester in Spain with the blogs I was supposed to be writing. So here´s to a new year and trying to do better. There won´t be that many simply because we´re working with a less than perfect internet connection so we´ll see how long I keep this up.

Last minute thoughts on Spain: I met so many amazing people who I now consider some of my closest friends. The stuff we went through and shared together is amazing. It´s crazy how close you can get to someone in a matter of months. I miss every person I went with so much, and not seeing them every day for hours on end is one of the strangest things to go through. I saw a lot of amazing places, not as many as I should have, which I regret a little bit, but the places I did see were well worth it. Spain was an experience that I don´t have enough words for, I learned so much, not just about Spanish, but about life as well, it reinforced some ideas I had, completely destroyed others, and created new ones I´d never thought of before. I´ve definitely grown as a person from that experience and I hope it continues on in France.

I can now say that I've slept in a train station, and that my first 12 hours of France were spent memorizing the waiting room in the Charles de Gaulle airport train station. My flight over, was ok, not as great as the trip to Spain, but it wasn't the worst I've ever had. There were no problems, no lost luggage, no delays, nothing to make me worry about whether or not this journey was screwed like the rest of the planning stages of this trip. I have found out that I love train traveling, it's pretty phenomenal.

My host family is great, I get along with them so much better than my last family, which is a relief, and I get vegetables here. That along with having a dog here makes me believe my family here is full of saints. If I had the vocabulary to describe how happy both of these things make me, it'd take about 17 pages and everything would be in capitals with plenty of exclamation points. Part of my excitement might also be from the fact that the dog is a Bichon-Friese (which is basically just a tiny poodle, and I don't even care if it's spelled right), and that's a pretty stereotypical French dog. And if you know me, you know how much I love a good stereotype coming true.

My host dad is hysterical, and actually talks to me, which is a bit of a difference from my last one, he makes sure I understand what he's saying, and he tells the best jokes. My host sister is nine and she's so excited to spend time with me, it's a great feeling. She loves helping me with my French, and it's nice to have a living dictionary around to help me study. She's also one of the sweetest kids I've ever met, and she talks so fast!! But I already feel like I can understand French better, and I've only been here 24 hours, just don't ask me how my speaking fares. Coming from Spain has made me horrible at French, in the 24 hours I've been here, I've replied at least 10 times in Spanish when my host family asks me a question, then I have to pause for 5 minutes until I can figure out how to say it in French. But they work with me, and I actually feel comfortable here.

The only downsides that I've discovered so far, are that I have to take showers at night (which isn't so bad, it's just that no one will see me with my hair down), and that I can't walk to school because it's a bit too far to make it in under 30 minutes, and I like sleep, so...yea. I also think that I have school on Friday's, which makes me want to cry, because I'm not used to actually having real school schedules after Spain. I'm planning on traveling a lot, starting this weekend. So we'll see how that goes, and whether or not I have to cry home to mom about finding some extra living money somewhere. I'm really starting to think that France is going to be a better time than Spain was. Which is exciting considering how much I enjoyed it in hindsight.