Ahhh...summertime :)

Yes. I know that most of you are just now on spring break.

Yes. I know the possibility of frost still exists. (even here?)

But dude.

I hereby declare the beginning of summer. This last class these two weeks can be considered a summer class, à mon avis (in my opinion).

Yesterday, I took the Institute tests. Ran home afterwards and worked on my paper even though I really wanted to go get fondue for lunch with the others--especially since Andrea was going and it's the last week she'll be around :( . But I worked on my paper anyway and it was a good thing I did because I went to my afternoon classes and did a little bit of necessary shopping and then worked on it for the whole rest of the day. Even though I needed to study for Kevin's test today. Then I quite happily escaped to Laura's house where we quite happily watched Sense and Sensibility and munched on peanut M&M's and a caramel milka bar with pretzels. SO MANY GOOD COMBINATIONS. It was fun to see the little things her family has added to the movies--like they call Edward "Mr. Funny-Pants" because...let's admit it, his pants are funny. Do we have a line we say when Willoughby's looking over the hill at the end? I felt like I should say something but I couldn't remember it....Anyway, it was lovely and fun and just...yeah, good clean fun =) And I still got to bed before midnight. Awesomesauce.

This morning I woke up still in a good mood and talked myself into washing my hair again (it wasn't that bad this morning, I exaggerate) and printed my paper and went to class, which was not the popular thing to do the day after exams. Only about half or a little less than half the class was there in the morning so we had a nice rambly kind of class--the good kind where we get off topic 43 times but it's because everyone's asking legitimate questions about French culture and we're giving our words of the day so we talk about where we found them and other words that mean the same thing and it's just very laid back and educational and fun all at the same time. Then at 11 when we usually have an enormous break from 11-2:30 instead we had a party from 11-12:10 when the normal class period is. That's when 2 or 3 more people showed up. ;) Everyone brought chips and cookies and candy (TAGADA!) and I contributed the leftovers from last night plus some juice to go with the champagne and whisky that the Kurdish guy brought. Everyone had their cameras out and A-C's daughter was there for no apparent reason and amused herself by drawing all our names on the board and keeping music playing with youtube videos. I learned some salsa steps and ate entirely too much and enjoyed myself. It was good times. Azad (the Kurdish guy) got champagne quasi-everywhere when he opened it...so I hope my stuff doesn't smell like alcohol for 100 years...don't worry it wasn't that bad ;).

After the party, I set myself to studying like a madwoman for Kevin's test. That is to say, I sat there with my notebook open while watching the others eat lunch that I wasn't hungry for after the party and talking and eating the orange Makayla threw into the pot. The communal let's-share-stuff pot. :) Don't worry, some of what we talked about was being concerned about the test and what we remembered from class. And then when they all went to class I went to the internet room and got down to it a little bit more.

Class this afternoon was highly laid back--Jerry did his presentation and we laughed our heads off (discreetly) about how technologically confused Alexandra is because it was about the googlization of the world. I told about Dad winning money monthly by being a beast at searching for trivia for radio games and about how I use google EVERY. DAY. For everything. I didn't realize quite how much I depend on it, in fact...

So then for "labo" we went to "sit outside" but we never got farther than standing around the door having their smoke break and then when other friends walked up and started talking about the test...well...I wasn't just going to not respond to them because I couldn't hear them through the invisible un-sound-proof non existant classroom wall, ehn?

We all stood around talking about which questions we wanted him to pick--it was one of those, here are 6 questions to research, I'll pick 2, you pick 1 kinds of tests. Then Kevin FREAKED US OUT because he was like, after the smoke break you're going into the room of The Question. And then he handed us a sheet with all six questions reprinted. YAY!

I wrote out an outline and then just wrote the thing straight through. It took me an hour and a half and if that wasn't an A paper, I don't know what is...Although, I did something I've never done before. I turned it in without reading it over. =O I know. But it was 6:30 and the meeting's at 7 and I was finally getting hungry. So I said as much: "I'm doing something I've never done before--turning in a test without reading it over. But since it's a content course and you said language doesn't matter and there's not much I can do about the organization at this point..." ...and I was the last one out and the building closes at "6:30"... It was 5 pages, hand written but "double spaced." Thinking back I could've perhaps added a connector or two if I HAD reread it, but I tried to just write it well as I went along...We'll see!

I INHALED my dinner--I think it was rhubarb tarte but I've never had rhubarb in a salty dish before so I'm not entirely sure--all of my rhubarb experience comes from quarkcake last summer in Germany. The applesauce was JUST LIKE Meme (my grandma)'s chunky applesauce. Extraordinarily just like it.

--ah, to fill you in on the most recent dinners: Monday night we had boudin noir (blood sausage) with baked apples and hash browns. I was a little apprehensive about the blood sausage but it was all in little pieces and just like bits of burnt tasty stuff and it was really good. THE APPLES were so good too because she had put raspberry jam in them...totally gonna try to make that someday. =) Tuesday night, yesterday, I don't quite remembe--ah yes, tarte without the crust which makes it a tortilla but it was still eggs and potatoes. =)P

Oh and Tuesday for lunch we had smoked salmon--trop bon--(too good) with a hard boiled egg and I think leftover hashbrowns --no, legit potatoes, and salade and toast. Really really good.

Where was I. Dinner. So I inhaled my dinner and just when I got out the door Andrea was walking by wondering which house exactly I lived in again (same thing happened last night--Laura was looking out the window just as I was trying to remember if it was 183 or 186...). We went back to Sarah and Muriel's place where we got to try Norwegian goat cheese (yummy) (Geez, I've eaten some crazy stuff in the past 3 days!) and talked about Jonah! I like the story of Jonah. It's always very interesting. =D I actually talked and even prayed too! In a somewhat meaningful fashion, I think!

I also took a poll about coiffeurs in the area. ;)

When I got back an important gardening friend of Isabelle et Hervé was on TV --it was fun to watch TV with them for like 10 mins and hear the comments they made and stuff :)

I again asked Isabelle about hairdressers because...

I'm pretty sure tomorrow's the big day. I don't think we have the DELF workshop, having already taken the test....and even if we do, I'm pretending that we don't, and I'm doing labo on Friday, so that means no afternoon class, and I'm going with Hannah and Emily (who were already planning to go shopping but Hannah wants to go with me when I get it done and Emily wants a haircut too) and we'll see how it goes! I'm tired of speculating and tired of being tired of having too much hair and I feel like the timing has finally arrived...hopefully the place and the person will arrive easily too. So we have the when, now we need the where and the who, the what has been established, and I guess the how is best defined "with scissors" and "by the grace of God" and "hopefully they know cuz I sure don't!" =D

I've decided that even if it's not perfect, well, you have to do a bit more upkeep when you have short hair so there will be plenty of occasions to tweak it, and that there's really no way to be 100% sure of what I want or what would look good on me until I try. =) It always grows back... =) And if I keep it pulled back 90% of the time anyway, I'll at least look like I have more hair than THAT. =)

Yes. This has been finally a post that's edging on too long with almost too much detail. At least I didn't tell you about how I spent 5 minutes in the deodorant aisle yesterday and finally chose the same one I got in Germany that I liked except that now it's a spray instead of a roll-on (why not?) and then I got home and realized the first two ingredients are butane and propane. All I saw in the store was "dermatologist tested blah blah blah." My philosophy is, "Other people here use this/eat this/wear this/do this and don't die, I'm sure I'll be fine!" =D Oh wait, now I DID add the drop of detail that makes the camel explode. Or something like that. =D I'll leave it to Dad to make a joke about camels using flammable deodorant... tee hee! =D

...and I should obviously go to bed. Good night! =D