A French Dinner Party, PDAs, and General Conference

Two in a row!!! Last week FLE was canceled so we got to lay out and soak up some sun and I have actually made progress with my tan! I signed up for NAU courses for Fall semester although I didn't get into BIO 416 (Gross Human Anatomy) but I've emailed the professor and I'm hoping I'll be able to get in! I can't believe I only have one year left at NAU before I get my degree, even though I could have graduated this semester! In one week I will start my application for graduate school, and if I get accepted, in three years I'll be a Physician Assistant! Also in a week I have to go to the OFII (Office of Integration and Immigration) to get a medical exam and get a stamp in my passport that way I can leave the country and go to Switzerland and Spain for the upcoming two-week break! I've heard in the medical exam  they take a chest x-ray which you get to keep! I'm actually really excited about this part! I've never had a chest x-ray, but I'm pretty sure I fractured a rib or two when I was 8 and got hit by a stray baseball, and I know one of my ribs the past few years has been unattached from the cartilage, and the fact that I get to keep the chest x-ray is awesome!

This is where I sunbathe.... Be jealous ;)

Now, last Saturday ROCKED. On the way to the market to get my apples and carrots before Anglophones Anonymous I saw the elders and we chatted for a bit. On my way to the café I ran into Maurice and his wife which, of course, resulted in a PDA (public display of affection lol). I joined Molly, Laura, and Alex sitting outside the café and after a few minutes of people-watching, chatting, and laughing about Molly's nearly-nonexistent voice this random old man walked up and stood between Alex and I just staring at me. Awkward enough, right? He started "laughing" (more like wheezing) for like thirty seconds and put his hand on my shoulder when I looked at him and all he said was "Elle ne dit rien!" ("She's not saying anything!") before starting to wheeze again, tousle my hair, and walk away! After enjoying some delicious pasta and getting invited to dinner by Alex we started fretting over what we should bring and wear to a French dinner party! So, we went to Casino (the supermarket) and got some ice-cream, an apple tart, and a pretty bottle of wine and headed home. Sitting on a bench were some older men who asked in French if we were Dutch or English and when we didn't reply he grabbed my bags! Apparently he doesn't do well with being ignored... Honestly! It was like pick-on-Lindsey-day or something! Maurice probably paid those men to make my life even more awkward haha. I should probably make a label for "Awkward old men." I went to the train station, bought a ticket to Toulouse for Sunday to go watch General Conference, saw the elders again, went tanning, showered, watched the Saturday morning session of General Conference with the elders and Caitlin, and then Alex picked us up to take us to Ecole des Mines!

We entered Guinome's flat and were seated on his bed with a coffee table in front of us that had M&Ms and no fewer than 20 different bottles and cartons of different drinks on it. French student dinner party :). Mathieu and a couple also came. We played a few drinking games which thankfully I didn't lose even though I didn't know what was going on! I did have some yummy pineapple juice though! Alex lost quite a bit, and drank more than a bit, and I was a bit concerned about how the food he was cooking would turn out, but there was no reason to worry! Around 10:30 he served us heaping plates of the most delicious rice and chicken I've ever tasted! After dinner we started playing darts and two girls the boys called their "godmothers" who looked like girl scouts joined in the fun. Then we headed to the student union/bar on campus. It was so cool! There were foosball (table football) and pool tables, crazily painted walls, barrels transformed into tables, a dance floor with platforms, and of course, a bar. Poor Molly and I were both suffering from allergies (hay fever) and Molly was especially suffering from a certain kid named Harvey. But, after fake relationships were established between Molly and Henry, and Caitlin and I, he backed off a bit. Alex was very sweet and kept coming over to make sure Harvey wasn't bugging me too much. The boys took us on a midnight stroll to see the pond and when we got back I was getting a water at the bar when I realized I was being stared down by an attractive guy wearing his grandmother's nightgown. Oh yeah! Did I mention that it was pajama night? Lolz.   I smiled and was pretty much instantly surrounded by 5 or 6 French guys: Paul (wearing the nightgown), 'Jardinet?' lol, Simon, and others. We played foosball, had deep conversations about movies and music (I was told I have awful taste in English music and need to see "127 hours"), and they told me I need to cut my fringe back to how it was when I was 7. I danced with Simon, who was fantastic! i was in the middle of teaching him a new move when the music went off at 3am. So, I said goodnight to my fan club and we headed to Henry's room and shared a brownie and chips. Charly finally took us home at 4, I set the alarm for 7:30 so I could catch the 9 o'clock train with the elders, and woke up at 10:30! Woops.

So I caught the 12:27 train and was sufficiently creeped out by a drunk man on the train, and thankfully saw T- (from Tahiti, in the Albi branch) in the station, headed back to Carmaux, and he helped me get to the metro, bought my ticket, and passed me on to one of his friends (Dani? from Tahiti) who was heading to the church. I love that even when you're running to catch the train, there is always time for kisses in France! We got to the church building a few minutes late and I went upstairs to the English-speaking room and afterwards met Elder and Sister Larson (no relation as far as I know) and stood awkwardly in the hall before finding a piano and playing around for an hour and a half. The only room where they broadcasted conference in English was full of missionaries.. and then there was me. By the time the "Sunday morning" session was over, it was 6pm and I decided I'd take my chances and catch the late train (9:20pm) back to Albi. Regiss (from the Congo) took me back to the metro, waited while I got my ticket, and left me to wait. There were only 3 lunatics and one two creeps, so I'd say it was pretty successful! By the time I got home, 11pm, I was exhausted and starving! I love conference though and it was nice to meet new people! I ate some leftover pasta and hit the sack. When I woke up at 7:30 I decided to skip my class and slept another hour, which was perfect because the teacher hasn't been here all week! Then in my French Lit class we were given a take-home exam so I basically didn't have classes! Monday and Tuesday I taught Tilipan (sp?) with the elders. There's a new one from Spokane, WA: Elder Brown. At FHE the past two weeks Amandine has made mini crepes au sucre. So cute!!

Pyrrhocoris apterus AKA Fire Bugs or Fire Beetles
Nasty little bugs, but at least they look kinda cool with the African Mask design!

 Here's some fun facts about these little guys: http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/fire-beetles/

Cathédrales and Anglophones Anonymous: God Save the Queen

Ok, silly me... I hadn't enabled comments on my blog, but now that's all corrected so please comment away!

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. -Bertrand Russell 

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! This will be a little quick, but that's probably less boring anyway. Nearly every Saturday morning I go to the "market" and get my produce for the week. A few Saturdays ago I was waiting for this cute little old couple to get their carrots so I could get mine, but for some reason they thought I was the vendeuse and so I ended up helping them put their carrots and lettuce into bags. Pretty sure the old man never figured it out, but his wife started laughing when she saw me get my own carrots. I then went to the Cloître Saint-Salvi and read a book for a few hours before going to a kebab shop where I made friends with the cutest 3 year old French girl! Her name is Canelle. She kept smiling at me and eventually brought her food over and sat by me. She kept asking me why I spoke English, but just shrugged and smiled when I asked why she spoke French. She was simply adorable! 

The theme of our party!

Every Saturday at 11AM is Anglophones Anonymous at Jussu café in centre-ville. Two Saturdays ago Maurice had a special surprise planned for everyone! I don't know if I've talked much about Maurice or not, but he is one unique Italian man! Him and his wife are faithful members of the Anglophones Anonymous of Albi. He's definitely one of the most interesting men in the world. 

He and his wife brought lots of champagne and foie gras (fatty liver). I'm not a huge fan of it, but I didn't puke either. Lucky for me, he also brought this delicious pineapple and coconut juice which he poured in a wine glass for me. Maurice kept circling the table refilling everyone's glasses and even though he knew I don't drink tried to force the champagne bottle on me while kissing my neck. Awkward..... haha

Meet Maurice and Caitlin!

On Thursday Richard and I went into centre-ville and went into the treasury and choeur de Cathédrale Saint- Cécile (3 euros).

Gotta love these winding staircases! 

There are actually two skulls in the treasury!

There's an actual radius or ulna in there! It's wrapped so I couldn't tell which... Still weird!

My mom's maiden initials!

Albi-ensium? Back in the day "u" and "v" were interchangeable (one of the few things I've learned from my Old English course)

This place actually serves frog legs.....

expensive candy shop!

 We wandered into Cathédrale Saint-Salvi which we didn't know existed, but surprise, it does!

The organ at Cathédrale Saint-Salvi

View from the bridge

Montpellier

I went to Montpellier with Fatma, from Turkey, on Wednesday and it was awesome! Even though it’s a tourist city it’s still on the smaller side and it has an authentic atmosphere. The weather was absolutely perfect for the few days that we were there. We got there in the early afternoon, found a hotel, and started wandering around the city. We came across a medical school which we initially thought was a cathedral. Jardin des Plantes was wonderful. My favorite part of the garden was a tree called "un arbre à souhait".  People write their secrets, wishes, or secret wishes and hide them in the tree. I don't think I have any secrets, so I wrote a wish instead. Next we went to the Promenade du Peyrou- a gorgeous parc with amazing fountains and a great view of the city. Maybe it’s just because it’s more of a student city, but we felt like everyone was paired off and making out haha. After wandering around centre-ville for a while (we saw the elders there!) we were starving, because we hadn’t had lunch, so we got dinner at le café 1893 at like 6, which got us a few odd looks because the French don’t usually eat dinner before 7 or 8.

Random Doors- Love them!

Super cute pizzeria! We wanted to eat here, but didn't have the chance :(

The next few photos are all part of this, which is the Medical School.... I'm jealous.

Jardin des Plantes

Fatma

L'arbre à souhait

Moi

We went into Swarovski and this was my favorite :)

Elders!

In the morning we got croissants at another café in the plaza in front of La Comedie. We got lost trying to find different sites, but it was fun! We went to Tour de la Babote, L’eglise Saint-Roch, Le Corum, Polygone (shopping mall!), Esplanade d’Europe, and Antigone. It was lots of fun. Unfortunately my camera died once we got to Antigone, so I only have a few photos of that. We saw some guys playing hockey on bikes- I think I might want to try it someday! A very sweet 84 year old woman took a picture for us, and was telling us about how she was born in Montpellier and how much she loved it- total sweetheart. By then our feet were feeling abused, so we went to the hotel and crashed for an hour before meeting up with Fatma’s friend, Paul, by the fountain in front of La Comedie. 

Look closely- click on it even! It's a painting :)

My admirer is a painting too... haha

Inside Eglise Saint-Roch

Another painitng! Isn't it so cool!?

On top of Le Corum

Behind the Polygone, by Antigone?

Bathing men founting... Nice haha

He took us to a tiny restaurant with delicious pizza, a pub where we got drinks (hot cocoa for me) and played Uno, then to a bar that had all sorts of pirate décor. It was awesome! They were playing lots of American music, so I was singing along most of the time. All of a sudden this guy came up to me, started kissing me and asking how I was doing. Of course, I had never seen him before in my life haha! I thought I had a pretty unique face, but who knows… Paul pushed him away a bit and told him he must be confused, etc. and I think that the guy thought we were “together” and started apologizing and bolted. It was rather hilarious! We had to head back to the hotel shortly after that (because there are no attendants after 11pm, and we’d have to ring the bell and wake them up) so Paul walked us back. But, once we got back to our room Fatma and I discovered we were still hungry (didn’t eat lunch again, and only had one piece of pizza) so we ran and got some delicious Chinese takeout. In the morning we grabbed paninis and Madeleines for the train ride back to Toulouse. We met up with Gokhan, went window shopping, got kefta kebabs, and hung around the train station for an hour, since the train we had wanted to take got canceled. Overall, wonderful trip! And, I even got some of my homework done on the train! On the train back to Albi some girl was sketching everyone in the car. It was really cool to watch!