I Miss Hugs.

These should be the last of my attempt to show Taylor my outfit for the first month.

Since it's been awhile since I posted (sorry!), this is going to be a fairly long and choppy post. I'm just going to write all the experiences in short paragraphs.

I swear, these people here think we have amazing stories to write about. For English we have to write an anecdote that we think helped shape us into the person we are today. And if writing that in English isn't hard enough, French Litt. wants us to write a extremely funny or extremely dramatic story (en français) that has happened to us while we've been in France... I have plenty of stories to write about for Litt, but the prof has extraordinarily high expectations AND she wants us to present it in class.
Her requirements:

-5 minute long presentation.
I don't think any of my stories are long enough!

-Must speak flawless French, the grammar and the accent.
....

-We cannot use "Il y a (there), faire (to do), ça (that) or chose (things)"
That's been easy so far.

I'm just going to ask my host family to just sit with me and help me write this, because writing and speaking is going to extremely difficult. As for English, I thought it was going to be easy because it only has to be 500 words, but my story is finished with only 286 words. I have nothing else to say, so I'm just going to create another draft and see how that goes. Anyways, for English, I'm writing about my near-death experience in Germany and for Litt. I'm going to write about the strange day I had shopping with Eilidh (one of my SYA friends) and some old man.

I'll post both stories when they are completed.

I just wanted to show off my amazing note taking skills IN FRENCH. I was never a big fan of history, but I love history this year, my prof is so funny. I love him.

I made a few French friends! Finally!! SYA had signups for this meet-and-greet at a French school. So, I signed up for it, and while I was there I talked to this one guy and we exchanged numbers and we've been texting ever since!!!!!! We haven't been able to meet up because he is always extraordinarily busy with basket ball (yes, he's athletic). But what I love the most is that he speaks French!! And all 125 messages that we've exchanged are in French!!!

So, I went out yesterday with my friend Crispin and I only had 10E on me, so I decided to go to an ATM and get some cash. So, I found a BNP, which is the sister bank of BOA, and went to the ATM and put my card in, typed in my pin and chose the amount of money I wanted to withdraw. Well, instead of giving my money, the ATM decides to "withhold my card at the request of the bank". Like, what?! J'étais tellement en colère. I called my dad and he called the bank a million times and worked it out, so I'm getting an emergency replacement card ASAP. THANKS DADDY, LOVE YOU!!!!! But, the not-so-funny-but-ironic thing is that was the exact same ATM that my friend used last Saturday to withdraw money and guess what? It took his card too. Oh la vache... I thought it was safe to use because he walked away from the ATM for a while, so I just assumed it took his card because he left it unattended. Stupid machine.

I bought new shoes, a new shirt and two new pants for under 50E! All of it is so cute!

<--These are maxi pain au chocolats... so.good. Eilidh and i both had one they are literally bigger than my face.


Oh, I realised that I don't really miss the US all that much. But the thing I do miss are hugs. I was never a touchy-feely person so, I didn't give very many hugs... but now that I'm in a country that never hugs, all I want to do is hug people. I just want to walk down the streets of Rennes with a sign that says "Free Hugs" just so that people will hug me. Maybe, I can make France realise that hugs are awesome!

On Friday my adviser had a little advisory party at her apartment. It was ridiculously fun. She's only like 28, so she's really easy to talk to and she's so funny. The entire school is trying to find someone to hook her up with because she doesn't have friends yet because she doesn't speak French. She was with SYA: Vietnam last year, so this is her first time in Rennes. She's just as new to the city as we are. But, at her apartment, we all basically ate junk food for about 3 straight hours, then we had epic heart to hearts. She's the math teacher and I swear, she's like the smartest person ever. I never would have imagined that she was that amazing at math. She's a great teacher!

Also, as of Wednesday, I have been here for a month. 8 more months to go. I don't like that. I want to stay here forever. I love everything about Rennes. I have yet to be homesick or sad in anyway.


This post is awful, I'm sorry! I need to start posting regularly so this doesn't happen again.

xx