Ahhh...the weekend.... :)

Let's see...yesterday... :)

I don't think I did much in the morning...I SHOULD'VE gone for a walk but it was cold and rainy...or at least it looked like it. It wasn't actually THAT bad when I left to go to l'auberge de jeunesse (the youth hostel) where the day's activities took place.

First of all was Korean cooking with EJ, a girl in my class, and a bunch of her friends--three French girls and 2 other Korean girls, to be precise. It was very fun and VERY YUMMY.

We ate:

lots of white rice of course under everything

Little omelette rolls--like a skinny omelette got rolled up and sliced. Veggies inside I think.

"crepes de kimchi" (kimchi crepes) --the were like little pancakes, fried, with kimchi inside, slightly spicy but just enough to be tasty.

a spicy (!) pork dish that, I realized halfway through the meal, tasted JUST LIKE a spicy version of the bbq chicken part of bbq-chicken-cornbread! It was really good!

there was also some salad

and I brought juice and M&Ms, and I left before all the orange juice was gone, but everything else was gone! =D

I quite enjoyed the food part...

and then the fun part:

We talked about...

the differences between languages (mostly Korean and French, with some Spanish and English thrown in.

French movies/actors

Korean music/singers

religion in Korea and France

among other things.

Turns out the French girls were there because they're trying to learn Korean, so they put up a request for a Korean friend at the Institute and EJ replied! So that's cool. Two of them were twins, and they're going to Seoul this summer, so we talked about that a little bit too. The one who wasn't a twin was all embarrassed/offended when EJ told her "You eat well" at one point during the meal (we both really liked the pork thing and were [politely] putting it away). Everyone else (mostly the Korean chicks) were like, "It's a good thing!" Ah, cultural differences...

I didn't realize that being Protestant is pretty common in Korea. The untwin French girl said she believes in God, but her family doesn't, and the talkative twin said that it's mostly the "petit bourgeoisie" who's catholic anymore. I think my host family must be bourgeoisish. haha :) She said most of the time French kids are agnostic.

As far as Korean-French comparisons go, apparently the numbers are hard. French-Spanish, the girls pointed out that there's one accent difference between the future tense and the past subjunctive tense in the third person, which I never actually noticed, and the untwin was like, "I just never use accents, just to be safe." Which is ironic because the future tense is used FAR more frequently than the past subjunctive...at least...I think it is. haha :)

So at about 3:30 I changed from the 4th floor to the 3rd floor, where a game of The Three Kingdoms was just finishing up. I joined in shortly thereafter (I think I was a bad guy/townsperson that time--oh no wait, I was the spy who tries to look like I'm a protector until the end where I end up trying to kill the lord too. Basically the goal is to be the last one alive.) They had added a few new cards since last time I played but it didn't take too too long to get them down. I was one of the last ones alive--my mistake was that I linked the lord with the protector (for any damage they would receive) and therefore showed that I was the spy, so they ganged up on me to kill me.

Then we ate some rice balls which...I couldn't do it. The inside was sweet and peanut based but the outside was gooey and globby and tasteless and textureless but SO STICKY...I didn't want to make a scene =)P Then they started sort of playing charades but Z and I talked (in English) and I sang and danced a little bit because everyone had to perform and KC copied me :)P XL sang--she does opera! :) We played another game, and Z and KC were on either side of me and died really quickly. During all the time in between turns I made them tell me stories about themselves. =)P We shared a galette du roi (which was hilarious because Z, being the youngest, had to go under the table according to tradition to say who each piece belonged to. But we made her go down before it was even cut...so it was awhile! haha! And then instead of saying people's names when we asked who it belonged to she just smacked their legs.)

We played one more game and then I was SO TIRED from actually looking at people's faces ALL DAY. It was only like 10:30 or 11 so J's boyfriend (J :-)P) (and everyone except for XL and KC and me) was trying to convince us (me and XL and KC) to stay. No, thank you. XL and I escaped but KC was still standing there with her stuff in her arms and her coat on encircled by everyone. "You go on first!" So XL and I got to walk home together and we got back on the topic of religion and I don't know if it's because words mean less in a second language but I can get my preacher voice on in French! I think it is because words mean less--I make up for it with emphasis. =P So that was cool to get to talk to her again because sometimes it seems like you have a really good conversation with someone and then nothing happens--but we're both thinking the whole time and I was smart enough to end the conversation with "If you have any questions, send me a fb question or something--and can I send you messages too if I have questions?" (Y).

This morning I slept till 9 again (two nights in a row of 9 hours!) and then went to church which was cool --I had trouble paying attention because I was feeling that slight, like, "I slept in a lot and now my head feels funny like I want to sleep but a nap would probably just make me wake up with a full-blown headache..." feeling. And I was sitting so that I couldn't see the pastor around the person in front of me.

Shortly after I got back, Stephane heated up some food Isabelle had made (which was delicious! I think the meat was chicken with potatoes and rice, and I think she used her "arabian" spices--a little curry, definitely some salt [whaaaaat??] and a bit of spiciness). I had a kiwi :) and grated carrots to start with. :) We managed to talk about movies and med school and it wasn't awkwardly silent, despite my lack of French skilz.

I went for a really long walk (I'm talking like an hour and a half) all around Tours because the sun came out and it was warm enough that at points I carried my coat with my ridiculously zebra striped arms (you know my one pink shirt with lighter stripes? yeah, I wore that under my short sleeved shirt of the day) that I had hidden under my brown hoodie earlier...layers make for funny effects sometimes, but it was one of those times when I realized that I would look funny doing it in the US, but I do it anyway there, so I carried my coat around France too. What-ever-man! :) I ran into 4 Bowling Green people. :)P

When I got back, I was hungry again (because I took proper portions at lunch, and I had just walked for almost an hour and a half straight) so I had some leftover quiche (that I had eaten a bit of Sat night too, just to get all the sugary feelings out of my mouth) and half an apple and I FINALLY tried my delicious 4fruit jelly (RED! strawb-raspb-ch-erries and gooseberries/red currants, whatever they are) with some of my 50 cent lazy toast. :)

I think I researched Islam in France some more then and I'm narrowing down closer to "Why is there such a strong reaction and buzz about this and is it merited?" I found a really good survey (Y)...and an article objecting to the phrasing of the questions. *sigh*

This was one of those afternoons that mysteriously disappeared to The Internet. haha. I did put laundry in!

For dinner, I heated up some frozen couscous-veggie-meat thing and boiled some additional couscous and heated up some soup and pulled out some salad (with its dressing and extra mustard) ...I ALMOST managed to eat the couscous without ketchup...almost...I ate the other half of my apple and uploaded pictures and skyped with the family! for a nice long time! and then ate a delicious chocolate mousse thing (with M&Ms ;) ...and some more red jelly with the bread that was going to be super stale tomorrow and some nutella also. Then I got my laundry out and actually folded it the day it was done. Because it was actually dry and NOT 11pm.

Back to the real world already tomorrow...but that's OK. This should be a good week. I would've liked to get more work done this weekend but it was really fun yesterday and ...restful? today. Question mark because it's really more restful to get your work done and then rest (which was another thing we had talked about on Weds night--God got his work done and then rested, I tend to mix the two...with mixed results, of course.)

I like going to bed before 12. :)

Good night! :)