Tuesday night we went to O'Cardinals to watch the Spain game (which was SWEET) and after we just hung out there for a little bit. There was a guy there from England (some people had met him before), his name's Luke and he's in France on "holiday," they don't say vacation. He was with some French people who he knew (they were all our age) and it was cool to be able to talk to them and hang out. One girl, Solene, is really nice and enjoyed hanging out with us. I went back a little after 11 but Anna stayed and said that later they met more people and one of them works at PwC in Lyon, I'll have to meet him sometime.
Wednesday was alright. We had class FOREVER. From 9-4 with a one hour break for lunch. And it was all with the same lady, the new teacher who doesn't understand the importance of letting us out in time or giving us breaks during the 3.5 hour morning like the other profs do. She has also given us more homework in just two days than I've had since arriving. Wonderful. After class Anna and I went back to the train store to fix our first class tickets. We got it worked out for the 17th, we will be going to Montpellier for the day. But our tickets to Normandy don't have second class available so we might just look into going somewhere else...any suggestions from whoever is reading this???
After the train store we went shopping. France has this time of year called "soldes." It only happens twice a year, it July and January, and EVERYTHING goes on sale. Like crazy on sale. And apparently they get better as time goes on. Yesterday was the first day and we just couldn't resist. I got black flats for 5 Euros! And I also bought a jacket that is seriously the exact same jacket that I pictured in my head this spring when I realized I needed a jacket. I got a couple other things and before we knew it it was 7:30...time for dinner!
After dinner I went to a concert at the castle with Brooke - La Flûte enchantée. It was pretty good. We got there a little after 9, when it was supposed to start, but in Typical French fashion it didn't start until almost 10. We stayed until about 10:45 and then went to meet the rest of the group at mojito. We all hung out there for a while and then some of us left around 11:30. I had forgotten about some homework that was due today so I had to leave and get that done asap.
Today was great! We had class from 9-12:30 and then we ate lunch in the cafeteria. Class dragged on at points again. It's weird, I'll make it to 11:30 just fine and then think that one more hour won't be too bad, but then I'm more than ready to get out at 12:30...it's awful. After lunch we met Guillaume and then we were off for paragliding (parapente).
Anna and I went first out of the group. It was AMAZING! Not at all terrifying like I expected. But nothing's too bad when compared to canyoning. I just put on a harness thing and the guy buckled it to him and told me to walk and then run. It was like 50 feet of doing that before we were in the air. The other thing he had told me was to not sit down until he told me I could. He said if I did we’d die…A little dramatic, but it really actually is super dangerous to do that, Guillaume told us you’d basically fall down the mountain. It was so cool to be up in the air, now I know how bird must live. We were actually up above them. I took some pictures in the air. It was just gorgeous. And I didn’t get motion sick either! Guillaume told us that last year the instructors/”pilots” had a contest to see how many people they could make sick. They would just do a bunch of turns and spins and stuff. He told us that out of 15 students, 6 threw up! Thank goodness they didn’t do the same thing this year.
After paragliding we went home and showered before making some dinner. At 7:30 we met up with Brooke and some others to go get chocolate mousse. Brooke went a month without having sweets and it ended yesterday so we all went out to celebrate. Solene, one of the people we met at the bar on Tuesday night, came with us. She is so funny. She lives in town, is 18, and if so animated when she talks, I love it! We came back after to get ready and then we all met at 11ish to go out to Opera, the club in town. Anna, Brooke, Michael, and I had never been before so it was a new experience for us. It was really cool! And way more fun than I thought. I’m not usually one who just wants to dance but I really had fun. And even better...a few weeks ago when Anna and Hope were leaving Mojito a guy who works there gave them 6 free passes to the club, and they gave one to me so it was free! Can't complain about that. We came back around 2, maybe if we didn’t have class in the morning we would have stayed longer. Some other time maybe…
Today getting up wasn’t too bad. I guess the past two summers of working at DD at 5 AM prepared me for the nights that I don’t get as much sleep as I’d like. We had Bruno again for class today. We talked about sports in France and learned some more about how the nation doesn’t like soccer as much anymore because they players are only in it for the money. After class we bought a sandwich from the café and then walked to the vélostation to meet the group to go to the vineyard. We rented bikes for the rest of the day and rode to the vineyard. It took forever! We were seriously riding bike for an hour and a half in the 90 degree sun. And that was just to get there.
When we arrived the woman who works there gave us tons of water. We were so gross. One of the guys looked like he had peed his pants because he sweated so much. We were all that sweaty but luckily our pants didn’t all show it. Not a good time. Lucky for us the place we were in was cool, like being in a basement. The lady talked to us about the vineyards, then she showed us a video about the vineyards, and then we walked through the little museum there. It was sweet. And I was very impressed with my comprehension skills today. Then it was time for the tasting! We tasted a white, pink, and red one. I actually liked the first two and I think I could have grown to like the red one. We rode back, this time it only took an hour (we got a little lost on the way...). On the way back one of the Russian girls wiped out on her bike. She hit some gravel while turning and going too fast and fell. Like arms and face all scraped up and bloody :-(
When we returned Jeffrey and I stopped to get some bread for dinner. We made French bread pizzas....for real. They were delicious!
After dinner we (Anna, Hope, Brooke, Mike, Michael, and I) started to watch the Hangover that Hope downloaded at school but something went wrong and it stopped in the middle. uh oh. It's ok though, cause they left and now I can go to bed. The lack of sleep last night, combined with the exhausting bike ride, have just taken it all out of me…Switzerland tomorrow!!
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