It's Crêpetastic

---

I know it has been ages. I have been busy! School is finally going well. Sort of. One of my professors broke his hip or something and changed the room of the class and of course I had no idea because no one emailed me to tell me. Duh. Cause organization here is nonexistent. So I've missed two classes now and a test without even knowing it. It's okay though because I emailed the professor. I'm sure it will get sorted out easily because everyone here thinks international students here are retarded, especially Americans, and so I'll play that up for once and get a redo. Thank God for stupid people. I kind of got a small cold from the massive amounts of rain we had last week but it is on its way out so yay!

After this week we have a break. I plan to go to Italy for a while and snoop around a bit with my friend Ellen. I met an Irish girl here named Jesse. Her and I are in the some of the same classes. She has the same problem as me. She started Italian at University from scratch and has had only 2 years of it and is kind of lost here. I'm really glad I met her because we can study together and go over stuff. Plus she's a real comfort in class because she gets the rhythm of class better since she's been here since September. She's really nice and we have a lot in common outside of classes. Her and I live really close together and we have been spending a lot of time with one another lately. Unfortunately, she will be gone though after this Wednesday because she's going home to see her family, but don't worry guys she'll be back when the break is over. : ) She taught me how to make crepes which is really freakin' easy.

All it is is flour, milk and an egg (or two eggs if you like them eggy). You make the batter really runny and whip out all of the lumps. Once you do that you spoon some onto a skillet with butter on it and cook both sides to a golden brown. Jesse's so good she can flip them in the pan. After that you put whatever you want on it. It can be sweet or savory. We tend to favor butter and jam or Nutella and bananas. My personal favorite is peanut butter (which they don't have over here) with honey and bananas. It is soooooo good. Jesse and I take a walk almost everyday on the prom (promenade) for some fresh air and exercise. We need it with all the crepes we've been making! She is a huge fan of horror movies so we have been watching those as well as Disney which is another favorite of mine. One day Jesse, Ellen and I went roller blading on the prom and that was quite an experience. It was a real challenging trying to maneuver through the masses of people walking, biking and sitting in our way. My calf muscles were on fire too after only a few minutes roller blading. It was INTENSE but so worth it and really cheap! It was only 4 euros for one hour. I loved doing it because I felt like I was stuck in 1993 or something. I didn't know people still did that kind of stuff. I was definitely a culture shock. When it gets warmer I'm going to wear my neon green gym shorts and neon sports bra that both look like they came from 1980 and do it right. I hope I don't fall cause that might not end well. Another aspect of French culture that seems to be a vestige from the 80s is their obsession with foosball. Yea I said foosball. They have them everywhere and its not like they sit there unused. Nah kids my age and even older will be having these super intense matches all the time. It's so weird. I haven't played foosball since I was in daycare. AND a lot of the girls here wear MC Hammer pants. You remember them...the parachute pants and the crab walk. Apparently they're in vogue now. Don't worry though I won't EVER put on a pair of those. EVER.

This week was the start of the CARNAVAL DE NICE. It is the weirdest carnival I have ever witnessed in my entire life. The floats they created to entertain us are beyond bizarre and I have no idea what these people were thinking when they decided to make them. For example there was a float with a Jewish man and a Palestinian arm in arm riding a dove. Behind them on the dove's tail were two tanks with their ends tied up I guess trying to say no more war. I want to know what the hell that has to do with Nice or its carnival. Why does the conflict in the East need its own float in this parade. I wonder how someone from either of those countries felt when they saw it. Haha I guess the French think they can solve world problems with floats. I, unfortunately, did NOT get a picture of that float but wish I had. : ( It would have been great for show and tell.

Recently Ellen, Elsie and I went to the Matisse Museum. It was a 45 minute bus ride to the other side of the city but really worth it. I didn't like the museum because I think museums are boring but after that we went to the monastery that was down the road and checked it out. It had really good views of the mountains and had a lot of really interesting facts in it. We got lunch too and checked out the gardens there which were really pretty. We tried to find the entrance to the Roman ruins that were near by but by the time we found them the place had closed so we could only get pictures from outside of it. Ellen gave us a tour of the campus she lives on and it is a lot nicer than the one I live and go to school on. They have a chateau and a freakin' pond with ducks. We have a couple poop colored buildings that look like parking garages. Sad face. I'm so jealous cause her campus looks 10xs more like Jurassic Park than mine. But of course this would be the case because she lives on the medical campus and I live on the language campus and we all know who always gets way more funding than the other.

I have really fallen in love with my French to English translation class. I kick ass at it first of all and I find it really entertaining and fun trying to find the best translation for a text. I know this is what I want to do with my life. I asked my professor his thoughts on the subject but of course he didn't know anything because he doesn't do translation for a living. I would love to translate books or do movie subtitles, the only problem is that I would be doing translations mostly from French to English because its always better to have a translator translate into their maternal language instead of vice versa. The translations are always stronger. This is a problem for me because not many French movies or books are popular to English speakers....haha. I'm confident I will find a job somewhere doing something though.

The gelato shops have finally begun to open in Vieux Nice. I've been twice so far to get some gelato. The first time I got pistachio and coffee. The second time I just got banana. The ice cream is sooooo good here! It's tastes homemade with none of that preservative crap. Jesse also introduced me to a kind of Italian fast food. We also heard about it from out professor in class one day. It's a ball of rice with bolognese sauce and cheese in the middle rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried. It's called an arancini. They feel healthier too. More than a burger joint or kebabs. Besides that I don't think I've had any new food experiences. Jesse has made me try a lot of foods that I already knew about but never tried. She loves cheese as much as I do and her mom even used to make it as a job so she's really helped me expand my cheese palate. Ellen and I and possibly Marissa are going to go visit Jesse when she goes back to Ireland after the semester is over. She will leave before us so towards the end of May when we have just open time to do whatever we plan to go stay with her and her family. I can't wait. She lives in the country outside the city of Galway in the Western part of the country on a farm of sorts. She has lots of animals and lots of land to just go around and explore in. It'll be so much fun!!!

Tonight we are going to celebrate Shana's birthday by going out to get socca. Socca, in case I haven't described it yet, is crushed chick peas (I think) smoothed out to a think pancake and baked in a pizza oven. It's really good even though there isn't much to it. After my class at 11h tomorrow Ellen and will hopefully go to Italy and explore a bit just over the border. We wanted to go to an open air market that's in one of the towns right over the border for the day but it ends at 14h and by the time we got there it will probably have ended. Her and I have been talking a lot about how we view the world since we've been here. Granted she's been here a semester longer but I already see what she's talking about in certain aspects.

This choice to study abroad is definitely worth it but I feel like I had to sacrifice some important things in order to do it. I don't like being away from my family and friends for this long and I feel like I'm missing out on really important stuff that I can't get back. In some ways I feel really lazy right now because I'm not running around like I usually do. I think I like this part more than I initially thought I would. I realize now that I was causing myself lots of unneeded stress by always pushing myself so hard. Being here has also made me more nationalistic. I love America and I love the South but I never really knew how much until I had a complete jackass of a French guy bash my country with his ignorant comments. He should be glad I'm a lady and didn't punch is face in for the kind of crap that came pouring out of his mouth. No one can go anywhere in their lives without encountering ignorant people, but this guy should get a medal or something. He was so high up on his French horse he couldn't even see the ground. At first I was shocked that someone could be so rude and blatantly insult someone's country right to their face. Then I remembered where I was....The funniest part of the whole thing was he was trying to impress me by insulting my country...Poor bastard.

Meeting Ellen and Jesse was a real blessing because when I hang out with them I'm so focused on having a good time that I forget where I am. Normally the fact that I'm in France is constantly being pushed into my face. With them I feel really comfortable and more at ease (à l'aise). I never noticed how on edge I feel around people I don't know very well especially when I have to speak another language. It's not a huge deal but I'm always subconsciously worried I will make a mistake and insult someone so I always make sure I am as correct as possible, which is draining. I'm really going to miss them and being here when I leave. I know I will. This place is so carefree and the weather is amazing. The people, for the most part, are really nice and very genial, but I will be ready to come home. I want to get back to camp and all of my friends that i only see now on facebook. I miss my family too and all of our awkward/funny family moments.

Hopefully it won't be so long until the next blog entry. I will shoot for the goal of one a week, but rest assured I haven't died if I don't reach my goal. Until next time (A tout!)

---

Photos

Ellen
At the bar

Jesse
at Jesse's place

Mexican Motif
Her lizard

Jesse and Gregoire
On the way to roller blade

Pimp Ellen's Ride
Ellen's dream car

Gogo girl
She's so tall compared to us

Graffiti
Found Titou's name on a wall

Oldies but goodies
Old me playing old man games

Orange tree
They're literally everywhere.

Oranges
I didn't do that

Comments

[Galadriel]

long time no see
Hey, my love, I am glad you graced us with your Blog presence. I am curious to know what Mr. Frenchie said that made you lose your temper you will have to let me know when you get back. You must make crepes when you get home so I can taste a fresh one. Would you like me to send some peanut butter your way? I dont know that I could live without it. On purpose anyway. well talk to you soon Love ya