First Official Week of School: Conquered

Tuesday:

This morning started out with me taking the bus. Fun fact about taking the bus, before you can officially "take it" you have to be on it. In order to be on it, you have to be at the bus stop at the exact moment that the bus arrives. To make this happen sometimes cardio is involved. Picture this: Little Candice walking to the bus stop, when suddenly, in the distance, she spots it. The bus. Moving towards her full speed ahead. The only problem? She is not yet at the bus stop, in fact, she still has a street to cross. Natural instincts kick in and she runs. Oh how she runs. When she gets to the street she thinks about running across it even though the traffic isn't stopped. "If I time it just right, I can slip through" she thinks. Then she thinks, "Wait a second, I enjoy living. I will wait." At this point to bus is stopped at the bus stop and I am still on the other side of the street. I look at the bus then the car approaching hoping then can read the my body language. It goes unnoticed. A second car comes and this man stops and let's me go! Freedom!! I run as fast as my feet will carry me in beat up converse and make it to the bus as the last person from the stop is entering the door. I throw myself in the bus doorway as the doors starts to shut. Victory. Of course I then had to endure every single human being staring at me and smiling, but you know what? I made it to class on time. All worth it.

First class of the day was alright. It is a writing practice course, which is great and very needed but the teacher speaks at a mile a minute and will look you dead in the eyes and says "Do you understand?" and hold her gaze until you either say "Yes" with confidence immediately after her question or else you are busted. If I don't understand, she will proceed to explain it again but even faster and it is the worst thing ever...because then she asks you again "Do you understand?" and if you say no, she looks at you like "Why not?", but if you say "Yes" then you are missing out on course material. Constant dilemma. Don't get my wrong, she is a very nice lady she just talks too fast for me. But I think I will get use to it as time goes on. After class was lunch.

Lunch was the usual. We went to the local mini-market and bought some food then hung out on the amphitheater steps and ate.

My second class of the day is a written communications course with a really great professor. He is incredibly nice and speaks at a steady pace. Not too fast, not too slow. I feel as if I learned a lot in that one class.

My third class of the day was a grammar course which I loved!! I love learning French grammar. It is super nerdy, I know, but I can't get enough of it. I think it is so useful and interesting and sophisticated. Ah! Love it.

After class, I went home and ran and cooked a gourmet dinner including every veggie under the sun.


Wednesday:

Today I made the bus in flawless fashion. My first class was a theatre class. Here we played charades. We were given common french terms and phrases to act out. It was really fun but somehow I became the person that people went to if they didn't know a certain word and while that is flattering, I don't know what made people think I was the lady for the job! Half the words no one in the class had heard of before so the teacher ended up having to tell us the words in the hallway then we would go back into the class and act it out. It was a lot of fun and we all ended up laughing most of the time. I like laughing so I like this class! Plus, I learned useful phrases which is always good.

After class I had a 3 hour break so I went home to relax for 2 and 1/2 of those hours. When I got home I saw that the newspaper article I was interviewed for was online!! And who made the article photo? Well none other than my American friend Lyndsie and two of my German girl friends! Very exciting.

My last class of the day was a phonetics class which was awesome. I feel like a phonetics class is pretty self-explanatory... but I will explain anyways! (I like the sound of my keyboard) The professor helped us with the pronunciation of letters, certain sounds that certain letters make when paired with one another, how the accents change the sound of verbs, etc. I found this class to be extremely useful because speaking is the hardest aspect of French for me at the moment. I am hoping by the end of this year, it is my strongest.

After class I road the 10 bus to Churchill with Hunter. He got off to take the bus back to the dorms and I got on a different bus to tackle the task that is picking up a package. I was able to use French the entire time when talking to two separate people at the post office!! It felt good. I got my package and had to walk to the nearest bus stop for my bus which was about half a mile away. The guy at the post office even looked and the package then looked and me and said "Do you need help?" and at this point I was so elated that I was able to understand everything he was saying I said "No thank you!" and went on my marry way. Fortunate for me, the package was big but not heavy so walking with it wasn't an issue. I got to the bus stop and waited. As the bus approached me I could see that everyone was packed in there like sardines but I really didn't want to walk home, so I shoved myself and my package into the bus. Because it was so crowed I ended up standing in the bus door entrance next to the driver. He was a nice guy.

When I got home I was SO EXCITED! 1. I finally had a comforter (I had only had a little blanket up to this point) 2. I finally had a pillow from home! (I had been using a pair of sweatpants for the first week then went to the store and bought a crappy 9 euro pillow to use for the other weeks) 3. I had a blender. This magic bullet blender was given to me on loan courtesy of Michael's wonderful mother. I was so excited to use the blender that I immediately started went to make a smoothie. I plugged in the blender, started to blend it and it made this really funny sound. So I stopped. Something began to smell like burning. When I removed the cup from the motor a punch of smoke followed and I thought to myself. "I am going to set off the smoke alarms!" I ran to my window and opened them and but the magic bullet on the ledge outside my window. Then I grabbed a folder and tried to push the smokey air out of my window. Even as I was doing this I thought to myself how ridiculous I must have looked. But practically everything I own in in this dorm room and if it goes, I am dead. So I folder-ed away! But no worries guys, it was a success.

After that little affair I went downstairs to try to get my student card registered so that I could pay for my rent online. The lady at the register was really nice. I feel like I am redundant because I say everyone is nice, but they truly are! I have not run into a jerk yet! After getting my card register, I went to the store with Lyndsie and got a rewards card to save money! Whoop whoop. While doing this we met Martin, a very nice security guard from England who is retired British Army. He decided that he wanted to move to France after his retirement 15 years ago and plans to stay here his whole life! I can't blame him. France is wonderful and Limoges is the kind of place that you would want to raise a family or live out your life in peace.

After the store, Lyndsie and I went running then I went home and made myself dinner, put my comforter on my bed and my new, wonderful extra pillow. I now have everything I could possibly need...except new shoes (mine won't make it through the winter)...and Michael...and a puppy(or kitten)...and a prolific understanding of the French language. It's all a work in process.

Thursday:

I don't know why but my oral comprehension class today was a struggle for me. My language class after went well but that comprehension class...felt like an idiot the whole time.
But now that my first week of academic course work is over I will say that I do feel like I have learned something new in every class thus far. I look forward to going to class everyday and I am a little bummed once it's over. I take these as good signs! I've decided that I am going to join a club or sports team or two to stay active as well as work on my French skills outside of the classroom.

After class I waited for the bus but realized that I had read the schedule wrong and that the bus wasn't going to be at the stop for another 30 minutes. It takes me about 25 minutes to walk home, so I walked instead. It started raining and I made the observation that no one wears raincoats here. Everyone has an umbrella. I have an umbrella (shout out to my mom!! You da best.) but I had only worn my raincoat to school that day.

Once home I asked Lyndsie if I could use her adapter to try out the blender again. It did work for a brief moment! But then it started smoking again. I don't know if I broke it the first time I used it or it was already kind of broken. Either way, I owe Michael's mom a new Magic Bullet.

The rest of the day was like the rest, ran, worked out and made dinner.

Friday:

I don't have class on Friday. In fact, I don't know a single student who does. I like the way the French think. (We also have an hour and a half lunch break everyday and a holiday vacation practically every month).

But this morning I still woke up at 8:30 because I had an interview/talk with the CEO of Hull Speed Associates Mr. William Hite. I think it went great! Mr. Hite is very easy to talk to and down to earth. It was a casual conversation but we discussed things that actually mattered in life not just the average interview question. If you are an accounting major and interested in working in Germany or Boston, I suggest you send him an email because his company seems like a great one to work for.

Around 2 Hannah, Lyndsie and I headed into town to find this 2 euro store. We found it, and it is glorious! It actually had really useful cooking tools, little bathroom rugs, cut decorations, shampoo & conditioner etc. I bought a cooking knife, a rug and some disinfectant wipes. After that we went to a book store to buy our friend a birthday gift. She is a huge baker/chef so we got her a fun recipe book and cute mugs. In the mugs we are going to put herbs to go along with the cooking theme. Hopefully she likes it! Hannah and Lynside got lunch at this really cute Cambodian restaurant, but they didn't have a non-meat option so I sat there like a weirdo and watched them eat. ;)

We also stopped into a fancy cooking supply store, which was beautiful and had the coolest things but was crazy expensive. We also stopped into some boutiques and at one boutique in particular met this really nice woman and we ended up having a full out conversation with her. I love the people of Limgoes! Then we went into a chocolate shop, a cheese shop and finally a macaroon shop. There Lynsdie and Hannah bought macaroons, then we went across the street to that they could enjoy some coffee with their macaroons because we are basically French. Then we went to this restaurant called WOKWAY and oh my goodness was it delicious and reasonably priced! I will have to go back sometime this week.

We walked home and that was that! It was a really fun day. Not only do I love the people of Limoges, but I love the people that I am experiencing Limoges with.

Sunday Brunch and the First Day of School

Sunday

First and foremost. As promised, I cleaned my entire room, Mom. I even whipped out the disinfectant wipes and the broom...no messing around. 

Instead of going to a Cathedral on Sunday, the crew and I went to brunch with the lovely Claire and Andrea. They are two French girls from Limoges. Claire picked us up and took us to this cute cafe/tea house where we met Andrea. There we feasted on breads, jellies, croissants, pain au chocolat (bread with chocolate in the middle), bacon, eggs, tea, orange juice and coffee. It was glorious (even though I only ate the bread an jelly). The pain au chocolat made quite the impression on my friends and I think they are developing an obsession but it's okay. They accept my love of bananas so I guess I will accept their love of pain au chocolat. We talked about our homes, our future plans, our studies, each others' stereotypes of the others' country and it was really a fun time! This brunch we spoke in English (because Claire and Andrea wanted to practice) and next brunch we are going to speak in French. After brunch we walked around town a little and discussed music and general interests. Claire told us about this cool French folk band coming to Limoges in November and I am going!! 

When we got home we all hung out in our rooms for a bit. After a couple hours Hannah, Lyndsie and I hit the track/trails! We ended up spending 2 1/2 hours out there which was Awesome! I love running the trails by my school and I love it even more when I have friends there with me. While we were walking around the track for our cool down we started discussing the prospect of going to Ireland for one of our breaks. I really hope that this is more than just talk.

After the track I made dinner and watched a lot of The Doha Debates videos. I suggest you check them out. Very interesting. That's all I am going to say about it.

In the middle of one of the videos some random guy knocked on my door...I didn't answer. He went away. That was all. 

Monday! 

Today was the first day of school. Ah! I had to be at the school by 10:00 am to find out which level I tested into. There are 4 levels. If I only tested in 1 then my credits wouldn't transfer over, if I tested in 3 it would be too hard and I would get all C's. Therefore level 2 was my goal. As for level 4, that level is for those who are practically fluent in French but still need to learn the idioms, slang, advanced grammar, etc.  I ran into Hunter at the bus stop an we went to the school together. Once at the school we went to the amphitheater where were instructed to go. When we got there about 10 minutes before 10 no one was there. While we were waiting outside this really nice German girl came up to us and started talking and I wish I was a stronger French speaker because she seemed like a really cool girl to hang out with but the whole not being able to communicate would be a tab bit on an issue...

At 10 the teachers came and we all filed inside. On the screen the head lady but up the level and underneath the level read all of the names of the students in that level. Thankfully I am in level 2! So is Hunter and the wonderful Julia from Germany! After we found out our level we were split up by our levels and took a tour of the university. This was like my third official tour but it didn't hurt to hear everything again. After the tour we had our lunch break. Hunter and I met up with Hannah and Lyndsie and we went to grab something to eat. We ended up going to the little Carrefour City (a mini grocery store) and brought our food back to eat on the steps of the amphitheater. Hannah went home because she didn't have class but Hunter, Lyndsie and I still had afternoon classes so we sat on the steps and talked about a myriad of topics. We also found out that even though Hunter and I are in different levels than Lyndsie, we still have two classes together! It was a good time. 

At 1:30 we went to class. Hunter and I's teacher was awesome! He is a really funny professor who is very articulate and speaks at a decent pace. I know I am going to enjoy his class. At first he had us throw this ball of paper that he wadded up on the spot to each other and whenever you were thrown the ball you had to present yourself. At first I was a little nervous but once I got up there it was great! The professor even said that I should be an actress because of my personality. I took it as a compliment. After we presented ourselves he presented himself then we started learning! The topic at hand was non verbal communication which I am so glad we are learning! French gestures and body language is a little different from American gestures and body language. After discussing that for a bit class was over!

We left the classroom and I went with Hunter to get his student I.D. After that we walked home because it was a beautiful day! (Lyndsie still had another class or else she would have been with us too).

It might be interesting to note that you only go to your class once a week. For example, let's say I have my Grammar class on Monday at 10:00 am, that means that I only have my grammar class on Monday, no other time. And let's say I have Oral Communication on Thursday at 1:30 pm, that means I only have Oral Communication on Thursday at 1:30 pm. BUT we have 10 classes to go to and they are all at least an hour long so it's still a busy schedule. Plus I want to take a European Studies course title Global Economics and Judicial Perspectives. The only problem is that is takes place during one of my other classes, but I think I can switch some things around and make it work. Technically I don't have to take all of my classes. We have 10 options and I have to be enrolled in 3, but I am here to learn French so of course I am taking every class! Especially since there is no additional cost for me because of my exchange student program. Another interesting thing to note about classes, school started today but we have until the 6th of October to make our final decisions on classes. This means that you are allowed to sit in on whichever classes you want for three weeks before deciding if that class is right for you*. It's pretty cool!
*This is true for the program I am in but not for all of the university students. Most majors for the regular French kids have a set curriculum made by the university. Only recently have electives been incorporated into some programs. 

When I got home from school...I napped. Then I woke up and Hannah, Matt and I went to and Language Cafe with the international students to practice French but it was so crowded and hot that we decided to leave early. I think as school starts up less people will go and then I will strike!

Once I got home for the Language Cafe, I made dinner. While cooking I met 6 students from Cameroon. It was one of the boys 21st birthdays and they were hanging out in the dining area celebrating. Out of the blue one of the girls asked me if I knew any boys from Turkey because her friend was looking for a husband...In fact I did know a boy from Turkey. I went back to my room to get the boy's consent to give this girl his name and come to find out, he's from Tunisia. My bad. I gave the girl his name anyways. He he he. They were really nice but at one point one boy asked me if I wanted a boyfriend from Cameroon to which I replied that I was engaged. After spending three weeks here I have come to realize that saying you have a boyfriend doesn't carry much weight, but a fiance, that's a whole new ball game! So that is my new response to everyone who tries to get my number or hit on me or whatever. It was actually pretty though because one of the girls looked at me and said "You're so lucky". And it's funny because in reality I don't have a burning desire to be engaged at this point in my life but here is this girl a couple years older than me and that is all that she wants. Because after I said that all she wanted to talk about was finding future husbands. 

Once back in my room I chatted with my friends and we are very serious about going to Ireland for our break. I found a plane ticket from La Rochelle for 20.35 euros. The train ticket from Limoges to La Rochelle costs more! (It's 28.50 euros.) Still super cheap to travel to another country! I am stoked to go running in Irish countryside!!!

That was pretty much my first day of school! Tomorrow will feel more like a real school day because I will have a full day and I am really looking forward to getting back into the school mindset!

Things to do Tomorrow:

Get package from Post Office

Buy plane ticket to Dublin

Buy train ticket to the airport

Au revoir

Candice

I Learned How to Add Photos!!

Today is Sunday and I am posting my Saturday blog, so I actually learned how to post photos to my blog today not Saturday but that's a minor detail.

Saturday!

The internet for my dorm area is down. All Hell has broken loose. Buildings are burning. Students are rioting. Baguettes are being stomped on the ground as a sign of symbolic protest. I feel a 6^th republic coming on...

Well folks, as previously mentioned our internet is down in our dorms. When I woke up this morning and tried logging online it didn't work. I thought maybe it wasn't letting me log on because I hadn't paid for my dorm room yet (I didn't know what day the payment was due). I went downstairs to the office and asked about my bill and when/how I should pay for it blah blah blah. Then she casually mentioned that the internet in all the dorms weren't working and wouldn't work until Monday. Needless to say my world crumbled. Just kidding. It wasn't a big deal at all.

After speaking to her I went to mooch off the school restaurant wifi on a bench directly outside of the restaurant. A minute or two later the same lady came walking towards me and told me not to sit outside by myself because people have come buy and stolen phones and purses from students while they were sitting where I was sitting. 1. It’s sad that that is a real concern. 2. I would like to see them try to out run me, go ahead!! I doubt I wouldn't catch up to them. Even if they are a hair faster, I know my endurance is better. But with that being said…3. I have a few goals here in France: learn French; eat a macaroon; make cool French friends; don’t get mugged. There are some others on that list as well but you get the idea.  Thus, I listened to her wise words and left that oasis of free wifi for the cold, harsh, wifi-less, world. I had a package at the post office in down and decided to go get it around 11. The post office goes to lunch at 12:30 so I thought an hour and a half was plenty of time. Incorrect! When I got there they told me it was at a different post office on the other side of town. No big deal, I should be able to make it there by 12:30. I hoped on a number 4 bus (which I hadn't ever ridden before and it was extremely nice and new looking) and got off at a stop that I had previously mapped out because I saw that was close to the post office. I arrived at the post office at 12:09 to find that though this was the same post office organization as the one on the other side of town, this post officed closed at 12:00 on Saturday for the day and didn't reopen until Monday.

Oh well. They man helping me at the first post office said that I have two weeks from Saturday to pick up my other package or else…I don’t know. They throw it away? I’m not going to find out. The second post office was in this part of town which I have never ventured to before and to which buses don’t really travel.  I mean they do, but it is one bus twice an hour to 5 different stops for the area that I was in. It was an incredibly beautiful day outside so I decided to walk. Here I would like to brag yet again, because I do not possess and incredible amount of talents. I cannot paint like Monet or sculpt like Michelangelo, but by gosh do I have a great sense of direction.  Using this blessing (thank you God, you must have always known that I was going to constantly be on the move) I found my way back to the main road and walked about a mile and a half to the grocery store to buy some bananas and a zucchini. At the check out, the cashier handed me a card that I was to put into this game machine outside the grocery store entrance. This game hasn't been there before so I'm not quite sure why it is there now, but it's okay because using my statistic class information I plotted out my plan of attack on this game and ended up winning 5 euros off my next grocery purchase! After I purchased my items and won 5 euros I headed home and decided to watch a movie on my laptop. For some reason, my regular movie player did not work here in France; I had to download a French compatible movie player, which really didn't make sense to me but it’s okay. The only downside to this is that I needed internet in order to download the program and internet is what I did not have. So I packed up my laptop, movie and a book and headed to the library. Well, I actually had to wait until Super Long French Lunch was over (at 2:00 pm) then I headed to the library. As I was walking to the library I saw two French weddings taking place at the Hôtel de ville de Limoges pictured below. Can't blame them.

I was at the library from 2:30ish until a little before it closed at 6. There I wrote out this week’s worth of blogs and posted them all except for today's because the day wasn't over at the time! Around 4 pm a random group of drummers took to the streets. Drums were banging, car horns were honking and people were whistling and dancing in the streets. This went on and off for about an hour. It was pretty cool.

At the library I decided to sit at the large table towards to back of the room I was in. I sat down and got to work. About 10 minutes later a guy came and sat right next to me. Normally I wouldn't have thought much of it, but there were about 10 open seats at this empty table and he took the one directly next to me. For me, that was against social norms but I figured maybe it's different in France? But now looking back on it, I think he was just a strange guy. Pretty soon a few other people came and sat at the table at what seemed to be a reasonable distance from one another. Then this guy next to me started getting up every 5 minutes and was extremely loud every time. Like the whole table would stare at him and some people even got up to leave because it was so loud and so frequent. At one point the entire room I was in stopped to look at him. I mean he was being loud. An older man in his 50's or so looked at him with obvious disappointment then looked at me and shook his head. The man next to me wasn't mean or anything, just a little weird. 

I left the library around 6 to meet up with Lyndsie and Matt to go to the store. I wanted to buy a mango. While we were in the exotic produce section Matt started talking about the Dragon Fruit or "Pitaya" and the Mangosteen he had in Thailand. We decided to buy some and try it out at the family dinner we were having that evening. So as everyone was preparing their portion of dinner Matt started cutting into the Dragon Fruit and the Mangosteen. Come to find out the Mangosteen is a summertime fruit slowly coming out of season. The insides looked slimy and for one of the Mangosteens that we bought, the inside was grey instead of the expected white. We were still able to try the fruit from some of the other ones that we bought but apparently we have to wait until next year to truly experience it's glory. The Dragon Fruit was nice! A little bland but really beautiful. 

 The outside of the Dragon Fruit

 The inside

The way Mangosteen shouldn't look on the inside...This wasn't the gray one though. We threw that bad boy away immediately. 

Once I got home I decided to do a complete clean down of my dorm! It is spotless now. Just kidding mom. It’s a mess. But I plan on cleaning it tomorrow, I swear! In reality I watched videos of Thomas Sowell discussing economics. I also watched videos discussing the Israel/Palestine state topic. The first video I watched was heavily pro-Israel and the second heavily pro-Palestine State. They were both about 45 minutes each and I think informative. 

My plans for tomorrow are going to a brunch with the crew, a French girl named Claire and Claire's friend! I am really excited!!  

Au revoir!

Candice Marchetta

Week Summary aka. Longest Blog Post to Date

I really need to carve out an hour every day to just blog because I know I am forgetting events and fun details. With that said, here is everything that I remember from this past week!

Tuesday!

In my dorm building everyone has window blinds that block out all light. I mean All light. Pitch darkness. This is really nice when you fall asleep but problematic when you wake up.

I woke up at 6:30 and decided to go back to bed since all I had to do today was study French and work out. The next time I woke up I thought maybe an hour had passed by when I looked at my clock at it was already 10:00 am! I'm not one for sleeping in because I feel like I am wasting the day away but my windows are so dark my mind always thinks it's 4 am! Oh well. At least I sleep like a baby here.

Tuesday morning I studied French for a couple hours on this app called Duolingo and it was pretty fun! It is a great refresher for me. It has you listen, speak, read, write and translate french. I recommend it! I also had been researching and working on my first CV this week and on Tuesday I really put a dent into it. I've never created a CV before this; I always had the plain old resume, but after making my first CV, I like it so much more than a regular resume! A CV allows you more freedom to elaborate on your education, past experiences and accomplishments and I feel as if your employer gets a better since of who you are through a CV than through a regular resume. Not all employers want CVs but if a company you're interested accepts both, I would go with the CV. After working on that bad boy, Lyndsie and I went running.

In the afternoon Lyndsie, Hannah and I went to the library and rented French movies or American movies in my case… I rented an old James Bond movie with Sean Connery. I’m curious to see how the French voice over goes. I doubt the French voice over will do justice to Sean Connery’s iconic Scottish voice but that is a huge task to ask of any human being!  

After the library, we came back home and I ran. Then I went to get ready to go to dinner with the usual people and 4 new OSU students.  There are two girls and two boys. Lyndsie had met the girls the other day when they were struggling to open the dorm doors. We all arranged a time to go eat via Facebook but since Hunter hates us and doesn’t have a Facebook we had to go knock on his door again to see if he wanted to join us. As fate would have it Hunter’s next door neighbor happen to be Josh, a fellow exchange student from China that we all met earlier in the week. He heard us speaking English outside Hunter’s door and came out to see what was going on. So we invited him to dinner as well! The dinner group now consisted of the 4 OSU students, Josh, Hunter, Matt, Hannah, Lyndsie and I. I guess a mob would be a more appropriate term then a group. Our mob took to a bus to Church Hill then took to the streets and walked to a restaurant. No one wanted to make a decision on where to eat (which, by the way, baffles me because we are all going out to eat so it is nice if people give their opinions on what they want to eat). We ended up eating outside at this nice, little restaurant. I am not sure how this happened but the waiter forgot both Matt and I’s meals. After an hour of no-show food, Matt re-ordered his “steak à cheval” (Cheval which means horse in French but this menu item is called a “Horse Steak” because the egg “rides” on top of the beef patty). No worries there.  In true savage fashion, I ate everyone’s salad and bread that didn’t want it. This worked out nicely for me because I got a free meal out of this outing! After dinner the four OSU students went to a bar and we walked home.

Fun Fact: They do not split checks in France. That was interesting but we figured it all out.

While waiting for our bus we decided to check out a nearby park with a pretty gazebo. Come to find out that is the hang out spot for a fair amount of homeless people. A guy came running up to us and started asking us for money and immediately Matt (who speaks zero French but is 6 foot 1 and has a thick Texas accent) said No about 6 times and the guy left us alone and even told us to have a good night.  Once home we all went our separate ways.

That night I watched an entire documentary on Reggie Miller and watched hilarious videos of Charles Barkely. I don’t know what has gotten into me.

The friends

Wednesday!

I don’t remember what I did Wednesday morning besides get a package (I have another one at the post office which I will get later) but I do remember the afternoon because it was registration day! Fun fact: I didn’t know that it was registration day until the day before (i.e Tuesday) because I am so use to receiving emails to alert me of such events but that isn’t how things work here I guess? On Tuesday, Lyndsie and Hannah went up to the school and found out that we were suppose to register Wednesday and where and at what time. Huge thanks to them for that one!!!

On Wednesday at 2:30 Lyndsie and I went to register and met Hannah there.  The entire time I thought that I was there to sign up for classes but really I was there to register for the university. So for a little bit both the woman that was working with me and I were confused. But luckily I met the beautiful and wonderful Julia from Germany and she explained everything.   After filling out my needed paper, I went to get my student I.D.  I now have my student I.D., a library card and a bus pass. I’m practically a local. Next on the agenda: a bank account (that’s going to be an interesting experience).

When the girls and I arrived back at our dorm we happen to run into Matt.  So we all went a got dinner at the university restaurant right outside our dormitory. It actually is a great deal because you get a small baguette, two sides, a yogurt, a juice, water and two main dishes for 3.20 euros. Lord knows I do not get that much food. On this particular day I was feeling especially not hungry and decided to attempt to just but three sides, but the lady working the register was onto my evil plan… She looked at my tray, looked and me, cocked her eyebrow and said “Non” at that was that. I was going to get three sides and not pay for the main course because the sides would have filled me up and the main course part of the meal costs extra…oh well…I ended up getting rice and mushrooms as my main course item and it was delicious! Food blessing in disguise.

After that we all went back to our dorms and I worked on a CV that I wanted to have completed and edited by third parties Friday morning. Then I am sure I watched YouTube videos of something ridiculous, read the news then went to bed.  That is another thing that I do every day: read the news! I am surprised that I haven’t mentioned it before. Now you all know my dirty secret.

Thursday!

 Hannah and I met up to take the bus to the school because we had our placement exam today. We ran into Hunter at the bus stop and it was exciting. Once we got into the school, we had two different people tell us where to go. We picked one location and it was the wrong place but luckily Corrine, one of our teachers, came and brought us to the correct room 5 minutes before the test took place. (We happen to be waiting where all the French students were waiting to take their test of some sort. So we thought that we were in the right place because there was a decent amount of students waiting outside studying material that we assumed to be French grammar, vocab, etc.).

Once we arrived in the correct room we were told that they were going to play the listening portion of the exam one time and one time only. At first I was a little disappointed but after a moment I realized it was for the best. We took our test and after went to the store to buy bananas! After that we still had about 20 minutes until our bus arrived so we went to the Quick (which is the French equivalent of a McDonald’s) and Hannah and Hunter bought food and milkshakes. Then we waited for our bus chariot to take us home. Our buses front door was broken so we had an incredible breeze the entire ride home which was a nice switch from the usual hot, sweaty bus rides in the afternoon. When we got home, I went running then made dinner.

Later that night we all went to a party hosted by a university club. It was at a bar. Very French. Very not American. I’m not a huge fan of parties but luckily the wonderful Julia was there! We still left the party early and because of the time the buses were running once an hour if at all (depending on the line) so we walked home. Personally, I love walking especially when it is cool outside and I like the people I am walking with.

We got invited to two more parties but I didn’t go because I am the MOST boring college student you will every encounter.  Sure, I will move half way across the world to a place I’ve never been and I can barely speak the language but go to a party? That’s just too far out of bounds for this kid.

Friday!

In the morning Lyndsie and Hannah and I went running on the track and on the trails! It was a great way to start the day. Then I worked on my CV and sent it in, which was very exciting.  After that a couple of us went to help Matt get his bus pass. This time we worked with a different lady at the counter. She didn’t take Matt’s driver’s license photos but instead took a new photo. She was, yet again, incredibly nice just like every other person I have encountered in Limoges thus far! If you are curious there are now 3 different options when it comes to supplying a photo to get your bus pass. The first (bringing your own I.D. photo from the local photo booths) is the safest but it is nice to have two alternatives (driver’s license photo and having them take your photo there) if you are feeling WiLd and cheap.

We made a quick stop at the library after to rent some movies for the night and I rented a French comedy classic. I’ll let you know how I like it! Something else happened today but I can’t quite remember what…sorry guys.

At about 8:00 pm the crew and I met up to go a girl’s house that Lyndsie met in class to watch a movie.  She is a beautiful and sweet Indian girl from South Africa who moved to France when she was 11 and is studying to be a veterinarian. In conclusion, she is cooler than all of us. One of the girls that was already at the house when we arrived Really wanted to watch the movie 2 Guns so we did and it was cute. After the movie we chatted with our hostess, her boyfriend and our hostesses’ three friends.  Then we walked home. When I got home it was around 12:30, maybe 12:40, and I started watching a ton of vegan cooking videos. I am completely inspired to bake once I get my blender (which has arrived in the mail!!).

On a side note, I am really enjoying Miles Kurosky’s music. I have been listening to this lovely song called “She Was My Dresden”. It kind of has a The Shins vibe. It is soft and calm yet not boring. He also has a much more upbeat song titled “Pink Lips, Black Lungs” that is prettyyy cool if that’s more what you’re looking for. I suggest checking both songs out.

And that has been my week thus far!

Au revoir!

Candice Marchetta

My American French Revolution and Repenting for it at Mass

Honestly, I don't really remember much about Saturday. My days are beginning to blur into one...but I have one distinct memory. I went to the supermarket to help a new student here buy some home goods and such. Before doing so I had to change out of my comfortable clothing into dreaded "real clothes" such as pants...don't get me started. It was traumatizing.

So as I'm walking to the store I start thinking, "Do I really need to change my clothes in order to go buy groceries? No!" (In reality the answer is yes...) But at the time it seemed like such a silly notion. I am only going there to help a friend and feed my banana addiction, which, by the way, is spiraling out of control! In theory I should be able to wear whatever I want! After getting home I decided to change into yoga pants and test out this theory. I started walking around my little area in yoga pants and I was identified as an American in 3.5 seconds. I didn't even care. I was comfortable. And you know what? I am going to wear yoga pants and running shorts next time I have to buy groceries! So ha! 

And that was my day. I did also go running and practice French but beyond that I don't recall.

SUNDAY!

I woke up Sunday morning and got ready to meet two of my new friends, Matt and Lyndsie, outside of the dorms to go to mass at one of the local 800 year old cathedrals. Because the bus system is weird on Sundays there wasn't the usual bus to take us into the city so we walked. It took about 45 minutes which really wasn't bad considering the company was great and the weather was beautiful. We arrived at the cathedral, and guys, it is mind blowingly beautiful. The exterior is incredible but once you sit inside and see the stone work and the sun shining through the stain glass...my word...it is truly a site to behold. None of us being Catholic, we sat in the back as to not be rude. I was able to follow along with most of what the priest was saying and I learned quite a few new words from listening to him! That was exciting. After mass we walked around the interior of the building to admire it all. (I have pictures on my Facebook). Then we left and started walking in a direction that none of us had been before just for the adventure of it. In this said direction we discovered a bunch of cool little stores and places that only locals go to because they are so far from the downtown area.We had been walking for about 3 hours when we decided to turn around and make our way back to the cathedral to see the gardens behind it before heading home.

Well, on the way back we stopped in a nice park to sit under a bench and rest for a moment. Only a few minutes passed before the bombardment began. First, it came in the form a a drop on Matt's pants, them moments later it came in the form of a HUGE plop on Lyndsie's shoulder. None of us had tissues or napkins so we resorted to using leaves to clean up the mess. Fortunately, I got out of it unscathed. 

Once home, we parted ways to eat dinner then Lyndsie and I went running. After that I returned to my dorm to cook some food and study French. Sunday night I fell asleep via watching hilarious Charles Barkley videos for longer than I would like to admit. I am not exaggerating when I say I laughed out loud so many time that my stomach began to hurt. He is a funny man whether he tries or not!

MONDAY!

Today was the day that we were going to go to the library. Matt and Hannah ended up not wanting to go to the library so Lyndsie and I went to see if Hunter wanted to join us. Now Hunter is a super cool human being and has zero social media, so communication is limited to email and front door. On this particular day we decided to go with the front door approach. This proved to be fruitful. When we arrived at his door, we knocked and waited about 30 seconds before knocking again. There wasn't an answer so we assumed he was either out and about or sleeping. As we are leaving down the stairs we hear someone running, and sure enough it is Hunter looking like he just got out of bed! Because he did...we woke him up...opps....But it was okay because he wanted to go into town with us! We took a bus then got off and walked to our final destination: La Maire. Here Hunter and Lyndsie filled out their forms and got their official, local bus passes. Now known of us look like tourists. Also, fun fact: If you are moving to Limoges and want to get a bus pass but do not want to pay 5 euros for i.d. pictures, bring your drivers license. They will use that photo (for free) as your bus pas photo! It's very nice. Also, when you go to buy your bus pass there will be an extra 10 euro charge to pay for the physical card that you are getting. This physical card is good for 3 years before you have to update it. Filling out the form to get the pass isn't complicated either. It asks for you address, phone number, email and signature. If you do not want to give your phone number, that's fine, they'll still accept the form. There are only a few things that might be a little tricky, one of them being the CEDEX (Courrier d'Entreprise à Distribution EXceptionnelle). This is a word that shows up on a lot of French documents. It is like a district number and often compared to a P.O. Box. In Limoges, the CEDEX is 87000. Another feature on the form that might be confusing if you haven't seen it before is "Fait à" next to the date and line for your signature. Fait à essentially means "Done at". So the location of where you are when signing this document. In this instance, you would write Limoges next to the "Fait à", then the date (day, month, year) and your signature. Et voilà! You have a bus pass.

After we took care of the bus passes, we went across the street to the library. Lyndsie got her library card but she couldn't use it because every Monday the library main floor is closed off. You can only return books and documents, look at magazines and sit in the far left room to use the internet. We didn't know that until we arrived there. But it was okay! The three of us studied French there and had a great time! After a couple hours of studying, we went home and then bought the weeks groceries! Did you know that generic French supermarket ice cream is the most beautiful ice cream I have even seen? All of the ice cream was topped with beautiful fruits and syrups and whipped creams. It looks so delicious and it's only 2 euros! I passed because I am zero fun and enjoying missing out on the good things in life, but my two much more exciting companions both bought some! I'll let you guys know if they say it tastes as good as it looks.

Once we got home be I decided to do some laundry and asked Matt and Lyndsie if they wanted to throw their bird attacked clothes in the wash with my gym clothes. Something to note about the laundry here. There are 4 building with 4 floors and 36 rooms on each floor (give or take). So that's about 600 kids. Want to know how many washing machines and dryers there are for all of us? Two washing machines and one dryer. There is suppose to be another laundry room in another building but it is being used for storage at the moment and doesn't have washing equipment in it. I'm going to have to find a place in town I think... and speaking of finding places in town, I found a rock climbing gym and some yoga studios not far from my dorm!! I'm very excited. 

That was pretty much that. Nothing too crazy happened this weekend but I still had a lot of fun walking around and exploring! 

Things to do:

Register for classes tomorrow

Don't miss placement test on ThursdayGo to library to rent movies and books

à plus tard!

Candice 

The Immersion Program

SO! Monday through Friday my university had an immersion program for incoming foreign exchange students. This gave us the opportunity to practice our French, learn about the administration system, learn about the town and neighboring regions, etc. Overall, I say it was a good program and I don't regret signing up for it. Here I met Hunter, who even though he goes to OU is incredibly funny and I love hanging out with. Here I also improved my French and better understood my weaknesses. And lastly, here I made friends!

To sum up Monday-Thursday, I would wake up, take the bus and a connecting bus to get to my institute then sit in class and learn. Then we would have lunch (which entailed us going to the city supermarket and buying food then eating on a curb because we didn't want to wait to eat our food. The walk back to the university was like a whole 5 minutes long) and come back and learn some more! After that I would go home and say I was going to nap and end up not napping and actually getting carried away in something else. Next I would watch various YouTube videos of cats, dogs, basketball, soccer, news, cooking videos (I don't discriminate) or read until I felt tired which was usually around 2:00-2:30. In the morning, I would wake up at 8:30 to be at the institute but 9:30.
On Wednesday a girl named Lyndsie and a boy named Matt from the US of A moved into my dorm area and that was nice. They're both cool cats.  And that was the week...until today (Friday)...duh duh duh...

Let me preface this with Thursday: On Thursday there was a welcome/information meeting for the international students attending the college within the university that I am apart of. There was a nice lady reporter asking if anyone wanted to be interviewed for the paper about their experience. I didn't raise my hand, but don't you worry, Guy came over and passive aggressively "suggested' that I do it and represent my country and such about 4 times. I told him I thought my French wasn't good enough and he was like "Aww she speaks English! You're fine..." I hate being the center of attention but this lady seemed like she really needed people to interview. So I went up to the nice lady and told her that I would do the interview since only one other student volunteered and she asked for two. WELL FRIENDS, it was a blessing in disguise! You see, I thought the interview was going to take place right then and there, but no, it was going to happen on Friday. "Candice, why does this matter?" I'm glad you asked. You see, on that particular Friday all of the students in this immersion program were to give a 10-15 minute presentation on something they specialize in/are passionate about. This was to take place at 14:00. You know what else was to take place at 14:00? The interview. And that's how I got out of presenting a project in French in front of people who know French wayyyyyy better than me. I considered it a win. I know, I know, "but Candice, that experience would build your character and you would be a better person because of it." Let me respond to that with this: Every single time I open my mouth I am building character, if you're catching my drift.

After that blessing from the Lord, I was pretty okay with life.

Friday rolls around and I go to class as usual then leave during lunch to go to this interview. In the interview she asked me questions and I was blatantly honest. For example, she asked if I had heard of Limoges before studying abroad. I said no. She asked me what Americans where I lived tended to think of French citizens. I said that they are fashionable, skinny, rude and have good food...like baguettes (which is true by the way) BUT! I did say after that I have not experienced any of the rudeness that I was so heavily warned of. In fact, I have yet to encounter anyone who was anything less than lovely! (I have a few examples of this from today that I will talk about later too). Then she tells me that Limoges is actually considered to be one of the rudest cities which blew my mind because I have had Nothing but positive experiences! She also told me that Limoges is one of the safest cities in France. And I'd say about 45 seconds to a minute after she says this, I hear a scream and turn around to see a guy running and three guys chasing him. All 4 of them were booking it.

Out of the three guys running after this one guy, the one in the middle trips and front flips, lands on his feet and starts running again. Because of that, I thought maybe this was staged and some student is making a film for class, or these guys are making an intense video for YouTube or something. Nope. That guy was just super graceful because 3 seconds later they catch this guy running and proceed to punch him. His buddies come over to rescue him and one guy leaves the guy getting hit and comes over to confront one of the friends coming. This guy confronting the friend front kicks him so hard that he is now laying on the ground and continues to kick him until he gets up and they brawl. Meanwhile, There is a group of these 4 guys or so punching this one guy on the ground while another guy is being pinned to the ground and another guy is trying to pull someone off and ends up ripping his shirt. And it was one of those moments where you cannot turn away because you are in a slight state of shock. I remember thinking "someone needs to stop this!" and naturally I started contemplating what I could do. I came to the conclusion: nothing. I will just sit in my chair until they either fight it out, someone burly men intervene or the police come. They ended up fighting it out and a couple of the guys ran away and the rest of them walked back to where they were before this whole debocale broke out. They just walked back, in front of everyone who just witnessed what happened, like it was nothing. Then the police came and started questioning them and securing the area and such. I think what happen was that the initial guy running has stolen something from one of the men chasing him. I could be wrong, but that is what I pieced together. The lady interviewing me said that she had never seen or heard of anything like that every happening here before. Glad they waited for me to get here before Fight Club-bing in the middle of public *sarcasm*.

We finished the interview and I since it was now 16:09 I decided to go get my year long bus pass and stop wasting money on day passes and stop looking like a tourist. This is another example of everyone being lovely to me here in Limoges: I am waiting in line and a girl comes and asks me to fill out a paper and she starts explaining something but I don't understand and she could have gotten extremely frustrated with me but she was so patient and kind and tried explaining it slowly and in a way that I understood. Finally I got it. Then a minute or two later, this young girl who is probably 15 asked me if I needed help filling out my forum and I say yes. She speaks nice and slow for me and tells me what is suppose to go where. It was one of those encounters where you think "I really do love people." And on that note, early in the day someone asked me where I was from and I said "Texas but I go to school in Oklahoma" and they went *pew pew* and made their hands into little guns. It was super funny and I appreciated it a lot.

After getting my fancy bus pass, I walked home because it was beautiful day and I have been missing walking around the city. Every time I go walking I learn. see or experience something new. Once I got back to my dorm area I hear my named called and what do you know! It's Lyndsie! I asked her if she has gotten groceries yet and she says no so we decide to go get her some food! While we are walking to the supermarket we run into our other two partners in crime and voila! We all went to the supermarket together like one, big happy family.

That was pretty much my week/Friday. Tomorrow I plan on running, studying French with Lyndsie and possibly Hannah and reading. A lot. I might go to a museum as well or the public library. We shall see!

Side notes:
1)Denim on Denim is popular here in addition to cheetah and leather.
2) Supermarkets play really cool music! I found this song called Tie up the Tides by Quilt. Kind of has a retro vibe if you're interested.
3) The people working in public transportation (bus drivers, ticket counter workers, etc) are incredible and I appreciate them an enormous amount

Au revoir!

Candice

I Bought A Baquette

The conversion has begun.

Saturday and Sunday.

This Saturday marks my one week anniversary of living in France. So naturally I bought a baguette.

But after one week, and with thorough examination, I have come to the conclusion that the rumors are true. All except one...which we will get to. People do walk around with baguettes, almost everyone is skinny, stripes are worn by many citizens and everyone smokes. I feel as if smoking is a part of the culture here. Everything accommodates smoking. However! The rumor that is not true: French street fashion is stylish. I will go on the record now and say that French street fashion is not all that it has cracked up to be. This of course is excluding high fashion because I still think Raf Simons to be a genius, but he's not even French! Just the creative director for a French fashion house. But I digress. In the terms of everyday French wear, I have been surprised. I have actually been shocked by what I have seen people wearing on the streets. For the most part, it's not even that the brands or styles are outrageous but rather the paring of the articles. It is probably different in different regions in France but in Limoges, that is what I have witnessed. For me, with the young adults, it's alright. But with the folks out of their 20's, it is very different than I had imagined. I have considered taking pictures of some people's dress that I have seen but I decided against if because if I do that than I am being cruel and making a specific person an object of mockery. That's not my style. Right now I feel as if I am just stating my opinion on the matter. Hopefully you agree. Hopefully you don't take much of what I say to heart.

But I would like to make one last comment on the topic of fashion then I will drop it. Promise. This again is something that I have seen a ton of: leopard/cheetah print...on men. I don't know if it is now a subconscious self fulling prophecy but I am seeing leopard/cheetah print everywhere I go! I was on the bus today and I saw 5 people rocking some form the this animal print. And I kid you not, as I am sitting here waiting for my bus I have seen two males, on unrelated occasions, wearing cheetah accents within two minutes of each other. Also, leather accents with clothing is a thing here. I noticed it some in the United States when I watched the 2013 NBA Slam Dunk Contest but didn't think much of it. (Which by the way, I am now re-watching as I type this. Gotta love split screen)

Sunday:

Saw someone driving a Ford today! That was exciting. I spent most of my day running, reading in the middle of this field behind my school and exploring some future running trails. I reviewed a lot of my French but this Sunday was mostly just a relaxing day before my immersion program starts tomorrow! I also looked into possible summer internships and revised my resume with the help of the ever so supportive boyfriend, Michael.

Things to do:
Buy trash bags
Get ready for the immersion program

Au revoir!

Candice

Became More Acquainted with the Busing System: I'm Practically a Local

First off: Technology hates me. It's sad really because I just want to be friends and right when I think that we are on good terms it stabs me in the back. Yet, I cannot seem to let it go. It's a very unhealthy relationship, I know.
What happened was that I had being logging onto my blog here in France and everything was going great. Then, on Friday, I tried logging back on but for some reason I kept getting a message saying that I was no longer the administrator of this cite, which was weird. So after a lot of Googling and forum reading and emailing, I finally figured it out today. So I'm back (again). Hopefully this will not be a reoccurring thing or else you will have abandonment issues by the end of this academic school year.

Let us start from where we left off: Friday.

You know when you wake up in the morning and your first thought is “I need to take a nap”? That is me this morning. I was so excited to have internet that I stayed up until 4 am and woke up at 9 am. I know for some of you out there that is just your daily routine, but I assure you for me, it is not. But on with the day!

I went to Hannah’s room at 10 am but she had slept in a bit and was running behind. This was completely fine by me because yesterday Hannah and I had made the discovery that my phone was an hour behind. Therefore when we were supposed to meet at 11, I actually showed up at 12 thinking that I was on time. So I owed her one. For that hour I decided to research the French words that I knew I learned, but couldn't remember for the life of me. Then when 11 rolled around Hannah and I went to the Porcelain exposition in town and it was INCREDIBLE. I wish I could have taken pictures to post on line to show you all but unfortunately pictures were prohibited. If you guys don’t know, Limoges is known for their fine porcelain so this was a great experience to see more into the culture of this city. The porcelain exposition was on display at the Galerie des Hospices and apparently they are always have interesting expositions coming through. I can’t wait to see more!

After the exposition Hannah went to get her train pass and I went to the library. Back to the whole "being real with you" thing. Guys. I love the library. In my hometown I had a library card. In Stillwater I was a frequent patron of the library. By frequent I mean 5-7 days a week. In Leavenworth, where I worked over the summer as a raft guide, I had a library card and went at least twice a week. So naturally here in France I needed a library card to survive! Got my card and all was right in the world.

After that Hannah and I went back to our dorms and I checked my email. I noticed that Guy (the man making sure I don't get myself killed while here) emailed me about meeting in the afternoon. Of course I wanted to see him! I hadn't seen him in months! So I set out for the bus. In order to get to Guy's office you have to take two separate buses. The first bus ride went smoothly. I was a local. However, the second bus ride was a different story. I needed to take bus 10 and there are two separate bus stops for the bus number that I needed to take. I had to make an uniformed choice. And I chose wrong. Oh well. So I'm on this bus now realizing that it is going to complete opposite direction of where I want to go. I look at my phone to see the time and realize that even if I got off and tried to catch a bus in the correct direction I still wouldn't make it to Guy's office before 5. I decided to ride the bus out and see where it took me. As fate would have it, the bus that I happen to be on was the bus that everyone and their mother wanted to be on. I remembered looking out the window a the line trying to get through the bus doors and looking back at the space that was left and thinking "Where are you all going to go? You all can't make it on this bus." Well they all did . At every stop. 5 would get off and 20 would get on and we all because very close friends by the end of it. A normal person would have dismounted the bus by now, but not I. I was going to ride it out (pun...just pretend I'm funny for like 3 seconds).  I had three not worthy experiences on the bus. 1: I gave my seat up for an old man and I spoke French without thinking about what I was going to say before I said it. It was kind of shocking. After the words left my lips I thought "Wait, was that right? Yeah! Yeah that was! Heck yes!!" 2. A lady complimented my ring than said something else that I didn't understand when I got off the bus I noticed that one of my button on my dress had come undone. But I don't know if that's what she was talking about or the button malfunction happened as I was getting of the bus. Either way, I thought it was kind of funny. And 3. My personal favorite. So we are all packed into this bus like sardines, right? I can't help but notice that the man next to me talking to his friend has a huge spider, that looked like it was out for blood, on his sleeve. What was my natural reaction? To hit it off of course! Upon doing so I realized that I did not know the word for spider or for bug. Essentially I had just hit this man in public and he stood there looking at my like "Who are you." I knew what I wanted to say but couldn't produce it in French so I stood there and smiled and guys, I kid you not, he took a step away from me and turned back to his friend while looking at me out of the corner of his eye. Needless to say he kept his distance for the net 5 minutes until he got off the bus. 

Finally the bus came to an end and I was at the further point in Limoges as I could have been (not including suburbs and farms) from my dorm. No biggie, I like walking. As I am walking a nice young man approaches me with bright red, swollen eyes and no teeth. He asks me for money for a bus fare but I didn't acknowledge him and kept on walking and you know what he did? He ran after me! So I'm speed walking and this guy is asking me for money an I say "Non" and he keeps begging then I say "Non!" and he keeps asking and this time I was kind of creeped out so I stopped walking turned to him and said "Non!!" and the look of surprise in his eyes was priceless. I mean, looking back on it I probably did look like a madwomen and I'm sure my voice was anything but feminine. However he immediately stopped running next to me and walked away. Of course not before he called me a view choice words, which I understood most of them by them by the way. The others I picked up on via context. It was an experience! The ironic thing is that earlier in the day I wrote about how I hadn't seen anyone begging in Limoges yet! Even though that happened, I still believe Limoges to be a safe, well kept city if anyone is interested in this area. 

Today I found out that my French placement test was moved up from the 15^th to the 11^th, an classes now start the 15th instead of the 22nd. I was a little surprised that they could just do that, but I guess since we a an institute within the university the rules are more relaxed. I also found out that they have an International Management course here taught in English! I need that course credit back home, so I might just take it here in France.  I bought some notebooks for school. The don’t have regular lined paper here; all the notebook paper is graphing paper. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Bought some onions…4 of them are the size of one regular onion in the USA. Gotta love GMO’s! ;)

I can’t believe that I hadn't mentioned this before, but I have been eating an abnormal amount of tabouli. I'm talking my body weight worth of tabooli. No, just kidding, not that much, but a fair amount! It's delicious. 

Tried working the stove to cook couscous…ended up microwaving it…even the stove tops are different. Fun Fact about Limoges: The weather is always nice so the rooms don’t even have ac, just heaters. Kind of cool. Another Fun Fact: Netflix has not yet come to France. BUT they should be here by October!! I'm not a big tv/movie watcher but it's nice to have the option.

Well folks, that was my Thursday!

Things to Do: 

Learn the word for spider

Stop eating as much tabouli

Buy cleaning products for the dorm

Buy oranges

Au revoir!

Candice