La premiere entrée de France
Bonjour tout le monde "LJ"!! This is officially my first post from "the other side of the pond!" With all the mass emailing and chatting on AIM, getting around to updating this thing doesn't happen too often. But now that Stetson has successfully locked me out of my email, this is the next best thing.
Anyway, for those of you who have been kept up to date via email, I finally got my first set of pictures (of Avignon and Marseille) up online. Unfortunately, I don't know how to let you all see it other than inviting you via email, so i don't know what to do. Currently my address book is tied up in the abyss that is my stetsonb email account. Once Stetson fixes my email, I'll properly send everyone the address.
Anyway, things are going much better here than they were. We travelled to the nearby towns of Nimes and Arles this past weekend which sufficiently wore me out, but kept me enough occupied so I wasn't able to grow homesick. Sundays are generally the worst because there's not much to do around here and at home it's usually a time of family (if I'm really at home) or a time of friends and AXO (if I'm at school). So for the first couple of weeks here, Sundays were tough. However, this past weekend (of which there will be pics posted soon) was great and next weekend is anticipated to be even better because we're going to .... PARIS!! I am SO EXCITED!! (can you tell?) Masha and I are going for 4 days (Sat-Tue) because we'll only be missing 3 hours of class (on Monday) that way. It'll probably be really cold, but I'm excited because hopefully that means there'll be snow on the ground, too.
Hmm, what else? The family situation has gotten much better. I've learned that the best way to go about things is to just avoid confrontation as much as possible. Generally the madame is pretty good, but if I see that she's stressed out or pissed, if it's not my fault I try to avoid her as much as possible. Because even if it isn't my fault, she'll find a way to make it mine or Drea's and take out her frustration on us. Soo...that's that.
I bought a few books last week to help pass the time now that I don't have a million and one things to do everyday or friends that I can just drop in on and stay for hours. I brought Jemima J by Jane Green and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand with me, but I finished the former in the first few days and I leant the latter to Drea who didn't finish until after I had supplemented my library with 3 new books. The first of which is the first Harry Potter book...in French. I'm about 20 gruelling pages in, but it's not too bad. The second is Italian Stories by Henry James which I was enticed to buy because A) I'm going to Italy for SB and the back of the book contained beautiful prose about it, and B) I felt the need to feel literary and scholarly. :p Unforunately, Henry James is not as simple (or as mindless) to read as I would have hoped, so I've subsequently put him on hold for a few days to read the third purchase: Bridget Jones' Diary. I've always heard good things about it so I finally picked it up and I'm already halfway through less than 24 hours after starting. I love Jane Green, and this is very similar (as I'm sure many of you reading this already know). I'll get back to Henry James and Harry Potter tomorrow, and then onto Ayn eventually, but for now I'm enjoying the emotional rollercoaster between Bridget and Daniel Cleaver. It's the best I can do to fulfill my thirst for emotional drama being so far away as I am from Stetson. :-p
Ok, well I guess that's it for now. Not much more to report. I promise to work the picture thing out soon.
A bientot, mes amis.
Anyway, for those of you who have been kept up to date via email, I finally got my first set of pictures (of Avignon and Marseille) up online. Unfortunately, I don't know how to let you all see it other than inviting you via email, so i don't know what to do. Currently my address book is tied up in the abyss that is my stetsonb email account. Once Stetson fixes my email, I'll properly send everyone the address.
Anyway, things are going much better here than they were. We travelled to the nearby towns of Nimes and Arles this past weekend which sufficiently wore me out, but kept me enough occupied so I wasn't able to grow homesick. Sundays are generally the worst because there's not much to do around here and at home it's usually a time of family (if I'm really at home) or a time of friends and AXO (if I'm at school). So for the first couple of weeks here, Sundays were tough. However, this past weekend (of which there will be pics posted soon) was great and next weekend is anticipated to be even better because we're going to .... PARIS!! I am SO EXCITED!! (can you tell?) Masha and I are going for 4 days (Sat-Tue) because we'll only be missing 3 hours of class (on Monday) that way. It'll probably be really cold, but I'm excited because hopefully that means there'll be snow on the ground, too.
Hmm, what else? The family situation has gotten much better. I've learned that the best way to go about things is to just avoid confrontation as much as possible. Generally the madame is pretty good, but if I see that she's stressed out or pissed, if it's not my fault I try to avoid her as much as possible. Because even if it isn't my fault, she'll find a way to make it mine or Drea's and take out her frustration on us. Soo...that's that.
I bought a few books last week to help pass the time now that I don't have a million and one things to do everyday or friends that I can just drop in on and stay for hours. I brought Jemima J by Jane Green and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand with me, but I finished the former in the first few days and I leant the latter to Drea who didn't finish until after I had supplemented my library with 3 new books. The first of which is the first Harry Potter book...in French. I'm about 20 gruelling pages in, but it's not too bad. The second is Italian Stories by Henry James which I was enticed to buy because A) I'm going to Italy for SB and the back of the book contained beautiful prose about it, and B) I felt the need to feel literary and scholarly. :p Unforunately, Henry James is not as simple (or as mindless) to read as I would have hoped, so I've subsequently put him on hold for a few days to read the third purchase: Bridget Jones' Diary. I've always heard good things about it so I finally picked it up and I'm already halfway through less than 24 hours after starting. I love Jane Green, and this is very similar (as I'm sure many of you reading this already know). I'll get back to Henry James and Harry Potter tomorrow, and then onto Ayn eventually, but for now I'm enjoying the emotional rollercoaster between Bridget and Daniel Cleaver. It's the best I can do to fulfill my thirst for emotional drama being so far away as I am from Stetson. :-p
Ok, well I guess that's it for now. Not much more to report. I promise to work the picture thing out soon.
A bientot, mes amis.