la fin de juin.

Sorry friends. It’s been awhile. Relationship with my internet here has been love/hate since my host brother has been home. While my host mom doesn’t use the computer much (which I think is a generational thing), the host brother can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately, if someone else uses the internet, I get booted. Host brother keeps adding reasons for him to be on poo poo list.

Anyway, last weekend was the trip to the Pyrenees mountains. Lazily, I decided to skip and slept in until noon instead. In my defense, it rained literally every day of last week and was pretty cold. Because I've just gotten over a bad bug, I figured it would be best to stay dry indoors and sleep in. I'm a little bummed about missing out on the experience. I have yet to see mountains in real life! There's another mountain trip excursion next month, so I'll get to go then.

Last week the USAC group here went to a cheese tasting. Amazing. One of my favorite cheeses here is definitely Brie. It's pretty mild and creamy. Also, french people don't understand my name. I figured Bree would be easier to say than Breona with their accents, ya know? I met a friend's host mom on Saturday night, and she had two drunken friends over. They were doing shots of vodka and drinking wine, and they were very, very amusing. One of the men couldn't remember my name, and at one point told me Bree sounded like Chinese. He then mumbled some chinese-related syllables: ming, ping, mei etc...

Tomorrow is my final for the month of June, and I can't believe how fast it has gone! I say goodbye to some good friends tomorrow because they aren't going on the Paris tour. Saying bye always sucks, but I knew this wouldn't last forever. Nothing does. I'm excited to meet new people. Always gotta look forward, ya know?

Speaking of the Paris tour, I leave bright and early Friday morning at 6 am. As in, I have to be at the train station and ready to go by 6 am. Yuck!! Paris was my first city choice for study abroad. Originally I wanted to study there for a whole semester, but I'm satisfied with where I am in little, quaint Pau. We'll see if the stereotypes are true: love in the streets, accordions, the eiffel tower (which can't be untrue but expectations will be questioned). I don't know where my expectations are. Excitement is mixed in there somewhere, but I've heard the city is smelly and dirty. If I go in with a meh attitude I'll be impressed, so that's the plan.

Wrap up of first session: I've realized and accepted I won't be fluent after two months in France, and now that I think about it, that expectation was unreal. Two months? That's nothing in the span of a lifetime. I am, however, less shy when speaking french. I'm still shy, but I'm at least willing to speak now. More than I can say for last semester in my french classes. Shyness in french is a work in progress. I'm trying to get confidence, so I'll be willing to make mistakes without caring. If I make the mistakes here, then I'll make less mistakes in classes at home. I've been studying french for 5 or 6ish years now. I know enough to speak and communicate. My host mom and I are getting a lot better at communicating. Less thought is required to form sentences. Sometimes I still have to stop and think about it when I'm using indirect and direct objects and where they go. Especially in the passe compose etc. Whew.

A friend and I discussed today how frustrating it is when you get a mental block. Flowing along in french and all of a sudden, you have this huge, nasty English word behind your eyelids and you can't look passed it. Seriously one of the most frustrating things that has happened here... Minus the alarm.

Oh! I know I'm being ADD, but my host brother set off the alarm at 2 am the other night!! Muaha. At least it wasn't me :).

Frustrating = taxis. I was too lazy to walk home Friday night after hanging out with some friends, so I called a taxi. When we arrived at my house, I asked him if he had change for a 50 euro. He said no. I froze, feeling all of the muscles in my legs tense. I had no idea what to do because I wasn't going to give him a 50 euro for a 12 euro cab ride, so I just sat there. Kinda felt like bawling, but I pretended to be firm in my decision and remained seated with the 50 in my hand. I wasn't joking. I had no other change on me. After a few minutes of awkwardness (and after realizing I wasn't a pansy American/woman who had money to blow), he threw two 40's at me and that was the end of it. Jerk.

2 of cheese tasting.
1 of the house