Le Fugacité de Temps

Hey everyone!!
I hope all is well with each of you! Things are still going well here; I'm finding a nice routine in my weeks, finally.  I just realized, though, that I have been here for a little over a month already!!! Holy buckets of bouncy balls, time is flying!!! (Thus, the title of this post =] )  There's still so much I want to do while I'm here and I feel like I'm not gonna have enough time! That means I'm kicking my butt into planning overdrive haha.  If you guys have any ideas of really cool places you think I need to visit, tell me!!! I only have a few vague plans in mind right now and I don't want to spend any more of my weekends in Caen!
This past week hasn't been very exciting - like I said, I'm settling into a routine by now.  There are only a couple of things - that I can think of at the moment - that would interest you.  Every Wednesday, I have a class called Simulation Globale, in which we create a French character for ourselves and learn about culture by "experiencing" it.  This past Wednesday was especially interesting... Mme Geslot surprised us all by telling us it was the "Festival of French Songs" in our made up town and we would all have to perform a French song before class was over!! Thankfully, we did it in large groups so it wasn't as difficult, but we went into the library and one of the more populated hallways and sang for practically everyone in the entire building!!! I am absolutely convinced that it is impossible to be nervous about public speaking in France...The profs make damn sure of that!! It was actually quite fun, though.  We sang a song that I know fairly well - Toi Plus Moi by Grégoire (In case anyone would like to take a listen to the original --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOru9ITtVIg) and we sounded pretty good! It was actually really fun, after we got over the shock of having to perform in public on such short notice haha. 
This week, I did laundry for the first time (in France)!!! Of course, it was much more complicated than it really needed to be, but what else did I really expect? It all went smoothly after I finally got into the laundry room (you have to buy tokens and rent the keys to the room and....oy).  On my way back to my room, I passed by the dog that lives in our complex.  He's a beautiful German Shepard and he has a nice fenced in area, but I never see anyone with him and it seems like he is always stuck in there! I see him there every day and I'm almost positive he spends the nights there, too.  Anyways, I was passing him on my way back to my room with my arms full of wet laundry (the dryer eats clothes, according to those who have gone before me, so I hung all my clothes to dry).  While I was passing, I made a quiet kissy noise to see if I could get the dog to let me pet him.  Instead, the dog jumped up and brought me his rope toy, then ran into the grass and waited for me to throw it!  When I didn't do it right away, he ran back, picked his toy up and dropped it again, then ran back to wait again.  I ended up playing with him for about 10 minutes and he looked so happy! Now, almost every time I pass, I throw his toy for him a couple of times- he's just so cute!
Other than that, my week was pretty boring.  Just the run of the mill school work (which I'm really beginning to resent...isn't this supposed to be my party time?!?! ;P ).  My weekend, however, was much more entertaining! Friday, Mira's friend Tia came to visit and we had a big dinner party with about 10 people.  It was supposed to be a girl's night, but we had a couple of guys crash our party and, honestly, that was totally fine with me.  We made veggie stir fry with chinese noodles with a soy sauce that Sarah sent me the recipe for.  It was DELICIOUS - a little spicy and a little sweet.  Everyone was raving about it.  We crepes for dessert (of course!) and we had a lot of fun with everyone for quite a few hours.  At around midnight, Mira and I tried to convince a few people to come out to the karaoke bar with us, but everyone was tuckered out so we went alone for a couple of hours.  This time, we didn't have any creepy men hitting on us and we each sang a Queen song ;D After we had been there for a couple hours, we decided to go sit by the water and talk for a bit.  We had only been there for a little while, when a couple guys came up and started talking with us.  Only one spoke English so we were kind of sliding between languages.  They were very interesting and nice and my French got even more of a workout! It was a lovely night.  =]
On Saturday, I went out with Mira and her friend Tia to see the sights around town! I finally got to take some time and snoop through the castle and we went into the museums! Everything there is so gorgeous... I have pictures up on facebook, if anyone is curious! While we were out, we decided to try speaking only French all day and we did a pretty good job of it! It was really funny whenever we had trouble finding the right words, though, because then we slipped into some really heady mix of French, Finnish, and English!! We also went downtown and walked around for a bit and had coffee together before Tia went to meet up with a different friend that she knows in Caen for the evening.  After that, Mira and I went home and got ready for another evening out.  This was the first time I've gone out two nights in a row and, let me tell ya, I am feeling it... This time, however, we were able to get a decent group to go out with us to karaoke!! (Yes, we spend most of our weekend at a karaoke bar haha, and we will probably spend a couple more weekends there before we leave!)  A few more people even met up with us there so we really had a good group! Only a couple of us sang though, and they never actually called my song (=[ ) so I sang We Will Rock You with Mira ;D (I put the video in, just above this paragraph...I hope it works!) At about 1am we wanted to go check out a couple other bars, but for some reason they were all closing, so we headed home.
So, that's all the news for now! Hopefully, next week's post will be a little more exciting than this one was but, until then:
Gros bisous!! <3
À bientôt,
Morgan

Keep Adventuring and Stay Not A Grownup.

*Words to live by from the wise and worldly Peter Pan.*

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday! I know I am!
So, it's time, once again, for our weekly dose of French adventures! My adventures in the classrooms are getting more and more intense! I found out this past week that I will soon have to give not one, but TWO oral presentations! Ahhh! Thankfully, one is with a group -- although, that's the one where I don't know when we're actually presenting haha.  The rest of my classes are interesting, though! We're really starting to get into the swing of things and I'm learning a ton of new vocab, if nothing else. I think, now that I've had a couple of weeks with these professors, that I am allowed to pass preliminary judgements on them ;P
My Lit prof., M. Rogues, is my only male teacher and he's pretty cool.  He's a little obsessed with French/Chinese authors so far but, hey, expanding my horizons is good! He also focuses a lot less on the actual literature and more on the words and their origins, which I think is kind of cool, but a lot of the other American students aren't liking it so much...
My Civilization prof, Mme Prunet, is a pretty good deal thus far, too! She's SUPER tiny and talks really fast but if you listen closely she says really interesting things.  Right now, we're working on stuff about the second world war and how it affected Caen's architecture and daily life.  Today, we took a tour of downtown and looked at the differences between the buildings that were rebuilt exactly as they were, buildings that were completely modernized, and all the stuff in between.  It was really cool to see, but - lemme tell ya - today was not a good day to wear heels....Oy.
My writing prof asked us at the very beginning to call her by her first name - Marie - which I thought meant that she was going to be a little more relaxed and open with us in class, but it turns out that I don't like her very much.  She's not clear in a lot of what she wants and she's kind of dry when she talks... It's hard to stay focused in her class...
I missed out on the first week of Sociology and Media class, because I was so turned around by the 5 different schedules they emailed us, so I can't properly comment on my two profs just yet, but don't worry, I'll let you know what I think when I have more information ;D
Next up on the list: Global Simulation with Mme Geslot! She is BY FAR my favorite prof!! She's excited about what she's doing, which makes us all excited and she's just the right mix of cracking-jokes and correcting-grammar.  Plus, it helps that the class itself is fun, too.  We have all created a French character for ourselves - I am a 56-year-old French woman named Charlotte Raineau - and we build on our characters every class period.  Right now, we're working on creating the town that we all live in between Cannes and Nice in southern France.  This stuff is definitely right up my alley as a writer!! =D
My next prof, Mme Levittoux, actually teaches two of my classes - Oral and Structures of the French Language (but then I have two profs for Structures, too...I know, confusing, right?).  Right now, she is my solid second favorite prof.  She's a lot calmer than Geslot, but you can still tell that she really cares about what she's doing.  She's very patient and sweet with us, while at the same time pushing us to always do better.  I really like that in a teacher.  I do think she does a little better job in Structures than in oral, but I think that's because Oral isn't very....structured....haha ironic, no?
My other - and last - Structures prof is Mme Ozouf.  We have 2 and a half hours every week with Mme Levittoux, then immediately after that, our little class of twenty joins the rest of level 2 to create a superclass of about 80-100 students for an hour with Mme Ozouf, in which she repeats what Levittoux already said for about half an hour, then moves on to rapid fire structures that none of us understand for the rest... I liked her at the beginning, but I'm liking her less and less because I always leave her class so confused!!
So, that's my little spiel on professors, for now =] On to other things!
I have been busy learning outside of class, too! The first week I was here, I saw (in passing only, sadly) a French signer!! It got me really interested in FSL and this past week, I taught myself a little French sign language! I now know the alphabet, the 5 W's, some random food words, and some basic hey-I-just-met-you conversation! I also learned that ASL and FSL are very similar.  I watched an FSL video and, though I couldn't understand all of it, I got a pretty good gist! I really want to keep learning FSL and maybe run into that signer again (and this time stop him and say hi!!) so I will be keeping my eyes peeled for more opportunities! 
On Thursday night, I went out with Mira.  This time, we didn't go out with the rest of the group or even to O'Donnell's, which is the usual University haunt, we decided to check out some of the smaller bars around town.  We hung out in her room for a while before we left and finished off about half a bottle of wine between us while we talked and listened to music, then we went out and found this lovely little hole-in-the-wall off the main drag.  We found a comfy corner and sat down with a bottle of cider to talk some more.  While we were talking, we found out that we both like to sing and decided that, at some point, we would have to see if Caen had any karaoke bars that we could hit.  When the bar closed at about 1230, neither of us was very tired, so we thought we'd see who was at O'Donnell's.  On the way there, however, we passed one of the guys in our group who told us that it was crazy there... so, we asked if he knew any smaller bars that were close.  Can you guess what kind of bar he said was just a block past O'Donnell's? That's right. Karaoke. =DDD Of course, we had to go!! We both sang a song each and we definitely want to go back again but we had to leave early that night because there were a couple of creepy guys who would NOT leave us alone... We talked on the way home, however, about how we can avoid people like that later... Learning to be more direct with our "no"s is step one of the process for both of us haha.. While we were talking, we found out that we've both had a couple of creepers around... thankfully, they've all been pretty harmless so far, just acting like they've known us forever and asking us to coffee or drinks about 2 minutes after they've met us... We've both been smart enough to decline the offers and decline to give out our numbers, though! That's a start, right?  Other than that, the night was fantastic, though.  I can't wait to go back and try out the karaoke bar again! Maybe with a couple extra people this time...haha.
Friday and Saturday were pretty quiet. Lots of skyping! I finally got to talk with Martha!!! We've both been so busy that it was hard to catch each other (especially with the wonky time difference...) but I've missed her face and I finally got to see it! =D We'll get the hang of this whole "weekly skype date" thing sooner or later haha.
Sunday was very interesting! Mira and I went to a Catholic mass at St. Pierre in the morning and I didn't burst into flame walking through the door! Who'da thunk? ;P It was very interesting and pretty, even if I didn't understand a whole lot of it, both because of the language and the very different rituals... Like I told one of the girls here, though - beauty should be viewed with the light that it was created in - and if that means going to mass, I'm ok with that.  I'd love to go back when it's quiet and snoop through all the nooks and crannies! I think that might become a thing for me - going to a different cathedral every Sunday for mass.  It would be interesting to see all the differences and similarities. After mass, we went to the market and I got a chance to explore a lot more than I did last week.  I didn't even realize how big it was!! We even found places that were selling rugs and mattresses!! There is also a much larger Arabic culture here than I was expecting.  Probably a quarter of the shops were Arabic - spices, teas, clothing, etc... It made the market even more exciting than I thought last week =] I also bought two new books! I know, I know, most of you are either groaning or grinning right now... but they're both in French! It will help me with my language abilities! And no, I am not rationalizing! Haha... The first one I found is the novel behind an EXTREMELY famous French movie called Jean de Florette.  We watched the movie in high school French class (remember, Martha? The second part Manon de la Source had the crazy guy that sewed a ribbon to his chest?) and it felt like the book was waiting there just for me.  The second is one that will make Dougie smile =] I bought the French version of King's Dark Tower! I'm excited to finally read it!! Hopefully I'll understand it all haha... I may be asking you fairly often if my assumptions are correct ;P <3 After all that, Sunday slowed down quickly (that's a little oxymoronic, but ...oh well!) and slid into Monday.
Today has been awesome, though I'm still not sure I can stand without wincing.... I'm not exaggerating when I say I walked probably about 5 miles today...in heels!! Not my most brilliant moment... As I mentioned earlier, we walked down to- and through- the castle and Centre Ville with my Civilization class to see how the buildings have changed since WWII.  After class was done, I went downtown again, this time to run errands (I left straight from class and so did not change my shoes..).  My first stop was Hotel de Ville.  I had never been there before but Mira said to get off the tram at St. Pierre then just walk all the way to the end of the road and it's right there.  Well, I walked for about 20 minutes and didn't find it, so I gave up and went back.  My next stop was the phone store (again) because Mum and I have been having trouble calling each other, and what did I see across the street but a sign for Hotel de Ville! So, I followed it.  Another 20 minutes later and I arrive at the Hotel de Ville only to realize that if I had gone a block further on Rue St. Pierre, I would have found it......*sigh* Oh well! I found my way inside and to the office I needed which was called "Bienvenue a Caen!" For those of you who don't speak French that means "Welcome to Caen!" In this office, I had about a 15 minute conversation with the man who runs it, filled out some paper work, and am now in the process of being assigned to a French family!! They will call or email me soon and I will get to meet them for dinner or lunch or something like that and talk with them about French life! The program was set up for international students like me so we can get a real taste of French culture and life and brush up on our conversational French! I'm so excited to meet the family! This will be such a great experience!! After that, I made my way back to the phone store and worked out that I had neglected to add a + sign before the phone number.... Why do the French have to be so difficult?? The lack of a silly little + sign renders my phone useless.. once again, I say *sigh.* Along with a working phone and a French family to interact with, I also gained a lot of confidence today! The past couple of weeks, whenever I had gone out to run errands that involved talking to people, I had stumbled over my tongue and used some horrible kind of franglish that made even me cringe... but today, I spoke fluidly and coherently and all in French!! I can't wait to see my speaking skills at the end of the semester!!! I finished the day off with a glass of wine with dinner and some more wine and chocolate to wash it down haha. It was pretty much the perfect end to a lovely day.
Alright, so now that it's 130am here and you all are caught up on my recent adventures, I should really stop typing and go to sleep... I hope you all are doing wonderfully!! Shoot me an email and tell me what's new! I love you all!! _\m/
À bientôt, mes amis!!
Bisous!!
Morgan

FINLAND!!

Salut tout le monde!!
Happy Valentines Day!
Just so everyone's on the same page, the title of this post is a reference to both my past week and Patrick Star from Spongebob haha. I'm sorry I'm late in posting!! I got really busy and then really lazy haha, but I hope you all forgive me!
So, to begin, this past week was my first week of my actual class load and holy buckets of bouncy balls I did not realize it would be this intense!! I have 9 different classes, some of which repeat during the week, and most of my weekdays begin at 8:30 and don't end until 16- or 17:30!! Some of my days, though, are a little lighter and we end around 15:30, which is nice.  We always have an hour for lunch so I've been coming back to my room and cooking lunch. If any of you have any yummy recipes that I can make on the stove top (I don't have an oven....) I would very much appreciate you emailing them to me! I'm getting tired of pasta even if I mix up the sauce every once in a while and add stir-fried veggies... Hopefully the recipes you send me will be easy to "vegetarian-ize" haha =] You can send it to morgan.livesay@my.und.edu or, if you already have an email of mine, send it to the one you have!
Oh, I was talking about my classes wasn't I? Woops! Anyways, I came here after hearing lots of stories about doing all the work in class and not having any homework, about the course load being pretty light and blah blah blah. All of these stories were LIES.  Well, for my level anyways haha. I already have quite a bit of homework (which reminds me, I should do that.... ;P) and the in-class work is pretty tough too, but I'm learning lots of new words! I'm still kind of nervous speaking French and I tend to trip over my tongue when I try to speak, but I've heard that that's normal so I'm just waiting it out haha.  I am getting better, though! Now, I can talk to the other students without sounding like a three-year-old at least! One really nice thing about my class load is that I have Fridays off! Gotta love the long weekend! That will make it a lot easier for me to travel around, too!
Since some of us have Fridays off, Thursdays have become the new party day and this past Thursday, we did just that! Meagan, Mira and I went to a free concert at the Cargo in downtown Caen.  It was a competition-type deal and they were down to the last 4 bands. I thought it was highly amusing that the performers described their sets in French, but then only sang in English! The sets were also a lot more mellow than we were expecting, so, even though the bands were very good, we left early because we were starting to fall asleep... We headed down to O'Donnell's to meet up with a few of our friends and celebrate Tyler's birthday! It was nice to just sit and talk after a long week of classes.. While we were talking, I met my first young French person! His name was Olivier, which immediately made me think of Oli, of course haha! I didn't talk to him very much, though, because he was a bit...um....attached to one of the other girls at the table... That night, I also met two Norwegians who were lovely! There was Sofie- who attends the University here, is really funny and very hyperactive haha but she was a lot of fun to be around- and Richard, Sofie's childhood friend who was visiting for the weekend.  I spent most of the night talking with Richard- we had a lot in common and lots of stories to share.  By the end of the night, he had invited me to a party that Sofie was throwing the next night at her house -- once Sofie invited me too, I felt a little more comfortable about considering haha.  Sadly, the party was one town over and I couldn't find anyone who would be willing to go with me, so I stayed home because I reaaally wasn't comfortable with the idea of traveling out of the city by myself, at night... I don't know how often Richard visits Sofie, but I find myself really hoping I get to see him again! ;D
On Friday, I went shopping with Meagan, Mira, and Jennifer.  We found a ton of little shops in back alleyways (like this perfect little boulangerie with the most delicious baguettes!!) and spent lots of time just looking through all of them.  Suffice to say, by the end of it all, I could barely stand in my heels! I did get two awesome new scarves for 3€ each though! And a belt to keep my pants up, since I forgot mine in the states haha.  That night and all of the next day, I stayed home and read because I wasn't feeling well - I let Tyler try a drink of my Embuscade (which I learned how to make and I'm definitely bringing it home to the states!!) on Thursday before he told me he was sick!!! I took lots of echinacea and drank a ton of tea so that I was better by Sunday, thankfully.
Every Sunday, at noon, a lot of the shops in downtown Caen put on an outdoor market! I missed it the last weekend, but this weekend I got there just after it started and it was amazing!! They blocked off an entire street by the docks and had everything from fruit stands, butcher stands, and cheese stands to shoes, jewelery, and hat stands! I could have stayed there all day but the market only lasts an hour every Sunday, so I'll have to go back next week to check out more! I wish more towns in the States did things like that besides just the farmers markets...After that, I was going to go to Carrefour to get things like chips and crackers but then I remembered...EVERYTHING shuts down on Sundays in France, which is why they have the market haha.  Instead, I'm going to Carrefour today with Mira after classes.  Later Sunday evening, I got to skype with Mum, which was really nice =] I needed to see a familiar face, even if it wasn't for very long.  After that we had Sunday crepes! This time, though, Mira made Finnish crepes! They're basically the same as French crepes, but a little thicker.  We spent the evening hanging out and chatting, we even took a stab at religion, which was interesting because we had such a range of beliefs! Towards the end of the evening came the really interesting part, though! We had gotten onto the subject of languages and how they affect our experiences and learning and found out we had a lot of different languages in the room, too! I'm not entirely sure what lead to this next event, but Mira turned into our teacher for a little while and we all learned how to count to 5, say 'hello' and 'goodbye,' and 'my name is...' in Finnish!! It was so much fun and Mira looked like she was having a blast! She kept saying we all had really funny accents haha.  She also told us all what the Finnish equivalent of our names were - my Finnish name is Moona (said like Mona but with extra emphasis on the 'o') =D So: Hyvaa paivaal, minun nimeni on Moona! I know we're supposed to be learning French but....Finnish is just so interesting!! Haha Mira took a few videos of us practicing so look for those on facebook ;P All that learning wore us out haha so a little after that everyone went back to their rooms to crash.  Of course, being the night owl that I am, I went home and got straight on skype to talk with ma belle pipelette Christine haha! I haven't talked to her much since I left so it was really nice to see her.  About 2 and a half hours later, I finally flopped into bed haha.
So that's my story for this week! I hope all's going well with you! Send me email's or snail mail or something so I can keep up with you guys too ;P <3
À bientôt, mes amis!! (Hei Hei!)
Bisous!!
Morgan

PS: Sorry for all the exclamation points... ! ;P

Sunday, lovely Sunday

Now, I know I already posted earlier today, but that was in the morning and so much has happened since then!! I went around 2pm to collect my purse from my friend (I had left it at the bar and he brought it back to campus for me! So sweet =]).  When I got to his building, I saw a few of my friends sitting in the lobby and chatting. I hung out with them for quite a while and found out that there was to be a crepe party at 430! When we got there, though, we were very confused because no one else had shown up. Turns out everyone was about half an hour late -- running on French time haha! We probably had about 25 people in that kitchen at one point and we spent the whole afternoon together! It was so fantastic and I got to know the group a lot better.  I met a couple new people as well -- two girls from Germany and a guy from Ireland! The crepes were delicious and we had lots of different toppings along with about 3 jars of Nutella -- can't have crepes without Nutella!!! Around 630-7 a group of us decided to make the trek (the tram was closed due to snow. The frenchies don't know how to handle snow haha) downtown for pizza because pizza hut does a buy one - get one deal on Sundays.  We slipped and slid down the icey slopes and I got to walk through William's castle for the first time!! It's beautiful! I will definitely be going back soon to get the full tour! We finally got back and were hailed as returning heros ;P Everyone was hungry for pizza.  I'm pretty sure we've decided to make this a Sunday tradition and I'm so excited! Today was so fantastic. I can't wait to see what these next few months hold for me!!
À bientôt, mes amis!!
Bisous!!
Morgan

Ma Première Semaine!

Hey everyone!! I hope this finds you all well! I'm writing to you after finishing my first full week in France! I have to say, I Love it here!! There's so much to do, so many people to meet, so many awesome things to learn! This post is going to have two different subjects -- thoughts on culture & (of course) adventures! I may have been wrong in my last post... all of my posts may end up being about that long haha sorry!
We went out last night with a pretty big group of us internationals and went to a couple of different bars.  At the first one, we began discussing all of the little cultural differences that you find - even just within the US! We had a girl named Iris with us from Norway and Mira is from Finland so we had lots of notes to compare! We talked about things that would be rude to do in our countries vs. here in France, we talked about talking habits (at the supper table, for instance), which, of course, lead to a discussion of swear words and their levels of obscenity.  It was a lot of fun to hear all the different stories from around the world.
When I arrived in Paris, I remember feeling like there should be a way to tell, just by looking at the people, that I was in a different country. They should walk differently, or act differently, or look different.  When I got to the train station and looked around me, I realized that none of that is true.  All the people there were hurrying to their next destinations with their heads down, staying out of everyone else's way -- it could have easily been a train station in the US.  The only way the people here walk differently is that they don't really leave any gaps between themselves and the person in front of them.  They do this everywhere, too.  In the US, when standing in line, it's polite to keep about an arms-length distance from the next person.  I've found, from experience, that if you don't stand less than a foot away from the person in front of you here, someone else will think you aren't in line and cut in front of you.  The only way the people here look different is the plethora of scarves in every color, length, and wrap! (I really do need to buy a couple new scarves...haha!) Sadly, I've yet to meet any French students (It's ironic how hard they are to find around here....) so I can't really dive into the little differences between our cultures... Hopefully that will change soon!!
Now that I've rambled about my thoughts for a little while, on to the adventures!! The beginning of this week started off fairly slow. We had orientation classes where they tested us to make sure we were in the right level (I am, by the way, in the correct level at B2) and we did some activities closer to the end of the week.  My favorite was with Mme Ozouf, our writing prof.  She gave us a sheet of a ton of the idioms in French and had us illustrate a couple of them on the board, then have the rest of the class guess which one we meant.  After, she told us what all of the ones we had drawn meant.  Some of them I would have guessed meant the complete opposite!! For example -- He has a heart made of artichoke actually means he's tender-hearted! Who'd a thunk?
On Wednesday, Mira and I (Mira is the girl I've been spending most of my time with. She's Finnish and very sweet =]) went downtown and shopping! Downtown Caen is so gorgeous! It's all old stone buildings with amazing carvings and wrought-iron over the windows.  The streets are all cobbled and very nice to walk on. Right next to Saint-Pierre, we found a working carrousel!! It's so colorful and cute!  I wish I hadn't forgotten my camera that day, but I will be here a while so I can still get pictures =] We went to a few clothing stores and and a shoe store (where I got an awesome pair of boots for only 10€!) and just checked out the town in general.  It was a really nice afternoon.  When we got back to campus, we could see the sun setting over Saint-Pierre...It was breath-taking. 
The next day, after our last class, Mira and I went to Carrefour -- the French Walmart -- to do some grocery shopping.  French stores are quite different than American... None of the stores here are organized in a pattern that I understand... you can find pots and pans in one aisle and cooking utensils halfway across the store!! I eventually found everything I needed, though, and I filled my mini-fridge up to bursting! I also bought my first bottle of wine! I haven't opened it yet but it's a 2010 Bordeaux and I'm really hoping it's good haha. On Friday, I didn't do a whole lot.  Take this however you want, but I've finished 3 and a half books since I got here haha. Sometimes I have too much time to myself... But, thankfully, after being frustrated all week and almost buying my own internet, we got Skype back up and working!!! So Friday night I Skyped with my family for a while and that was amazing! I'd been pretty homesick for that week... It's a lot better now though =]
Last night was my first, big outing! Mira, who has had a lot more success with meeting her neighbors than I have (mine are very reclusive..) heard a plan to go out with a group and asked if she and I could join.  Around 8, we had a group of seven people on our way downtown.  Most of these people I hadn't met, but it was so much fun to talk to them! I'd forgotten how much I love being in a big group of friends! The first bar we went to was called Ross and Co. and it was tiny and Packed!! We ended up sitting outside in the garden.  It was funny to listen to the Texans complain about the mild weather ;P This was where we had our cultural discussion and the girls split a couple pitchers of Embuscade, which means Ambush in English. It lives up to it's name, let me tell you! It was really yummy though haha.  Just as we were about to head to the next bar, about four more internationals showed up and joined us - three of them were from UND! It was nice to see them and catch up on how their trips went and what they've been up to.  On our way to the next bar, we all realized that it was very icey (after I fell on my butt....*sigh* I thought I was leaving all that behind me in ND!!) and we started walking in chains, which was fun.  When we got to Mozzies, it was practically empty but I think I liked that bar the best of the three.  We all sat around a huge table and drank and laughed, took a few pictures and had a good time. We stayed there for about an hour, then made our way to the ever-popular O'Donnell's! I'd heard quite a bit about this bar and was excited to see it.  When we got there, we found about 10 more internationals, so now we had a really huge group! The pub was pretty packed but we had fun talking with everyone and about half an hour after we got there, a live DJ came on, so, of course, we all danced for a while! Finally, a group of us left at about 1:30am and started the trek back to campus through the snow.  The Texans were funny again - they were so excited about seeing snow! When we were pretty much back at campus, I realized that I had left my purse back at O'Donnell's..... Thankfully I had taken out everything important and only had about 20€ in it.  Also, thankfully, I had just gotten the number of one of the guys who had stayed a little later.  I was able to text him and beg him to bring it back for me, which he was kind enough to do =] Also, also, thankfully -- despite how much I drank last night, I didn't wake up with even an ounce of a hangover (*knockonwood*).
Well, that concludes this weeks adventures! I hope it was as entertaining to read as it was to live =] Pictures will be making their way onto facebook today, so keep a look out!

À bientôt, mes amis!!
Bisous!!
Morgan