I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!!!!! This has the potential to be a long post, just warning you now. I guess I'll start with Wednesday because nothing really happened on Tuesday except my friend Katie printed out my e-ticket for me....thanks again! Alright, so Wednesday I had an exam in my cinema class. I was really freaking out about it because I should have done more studying for it than I did the night before. When we got into the class Katie tells me that it's an open note test. How did I not know this? Maybe I was just too busy staring at the professor and didn't even realize that he said we could use our notes. So really, I had no reason to freak out. Even though it was an open note test, it was very long and pretty hard....that's what she said. We had to watch a clip from "Hiroshima Mon Amour," which we watched a few weeks ago. There was 5 questions that corresponded with the clip. We watched the clip 3 times and I took notes. Our professor gave us scratch paper to write on because he wanted out responses to be well thought out and stuff like that. So I took my time writing out my answers. I finished 2 of the harder questions that were about the movie and I looked at my phone and it said that it was 3:33pm....the professor said that the exam was over at 3:45pm. Well fml, I only had 2 of the 7 (there were 2 more questions on the front) questions answered and didn't even start on the quiz that was on the last page. I rushed through the 3rd question for the film and I know I got it wrong, there was no way it was right. The professor gave us 20 more minutes to finish because when he said there was 5 minutes left everyone freaked out. That made me feel a little better because it was taking everyone just as long to finish the exam. I finally finished, after he gave us an extra 10 more minutes, and turned my exam in. We took a break and I went and asked Michel, the professor, if we were going to finish before 6 tonight because I had to make sure I had enough time to change because I was going to see The Nutcracker at 7. He said that I could leave after the presentations. He told us that we wouldn't have class after break so he gave us all a copy of the movie to watch for the following week, which was nice of him.

I headed back to apartment and changed. Renee was still there and she freaked out when she saw me in a dress. I think she thinks the only thing I own is jeans, which is partially true but I like my jeans. She asked what I was wearing underneath, in French of course, and I wasn't sure what she meant. I was like are you asking me if I'm wearing underwear because that's kind of weird....and yes, I was wearing underwear. I then figured out that she was asking if I was going to wear tights because it was really cold out. I told her that the only ones I had were black and didn't think they would look good. She gave me these pair of tights to try on and they ended up being spanks but tights...she bought like 8 packages of the wrong thing. Then she gave me a pair of cream colored tights to try on. Renee is a lot shorted then I am so there was no way the tights were going to fit. I tried them on anyways and the crotch of the tights stopped mid thigh, so needless to say, I wasn't wearing those. I ended up wearing the black tights because I knew that if I didn't wear anything I'd freeze. I thought I looked stupid because they are footless tights and I was wearing high heels, but everyone said it looked fine. Maybe they were lying because I felt like an idiot. At least I was some what warm.

The Nutcracker was AMAZING. I've always wanted to see it but really never had the opportunity to. I was seriously in awe the entire time. It started and I just gasped because the set was so cool. The costumes, especially the rats, Clara, the Nutcracker or the Prince, whatever you want to call him, the sugarplum fairies, everything, was so beautiful. Clara's costume when she dances with the prince and they each do their little solos was so pretty! They had fake snow falling, it was so magical. During the first act, Antonia, who was sitting next to me, fell asleep (how she could fall asleep during the show I have no idea) but she woke up and jumped half way out of her seat when the cannon went off. It was pretty funny. After the first act I was talking to Amber and she said she was really thirsty. I told her she could have a sip of my water that I brought. Before she drank out of it she goes, "you're not homophobic about your water are you?" I just looked at her for a minute and was like no and then started cracking up because I realized that she said homophobic instead of germaphobic. BHAHAHAH!!!!! I laughed for a good 2 minutes. Clara messed up during the second act. She was dancing with the prince and he was pulling her backwards and she stumbled. The entire audiance gasped. When the show ended we clapped for what seemed like 5 hours. They did 2 bows with the same people...why they did this I have no idea. I had no idea that there was going to be a live orchestra. They were really good. I just figured that there was going to be music playing from a CD or something, but the live orchestra in the pit was AWESOME!!!! The conductor of the orchestra was crazy. His arms must be really sore after the show. He was also bald so the light shined off of his head like crazy.

Thursday I woke up around 9ish and looked out my window and IT SNOWED!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAY!!!! I was so happy! I grabbed my camera right away and started taking pictures. There were cars honking outside my window because there was this crazy traffic jam. There really wasn't even that much snow. I don't know why they were all freaking out. But, I guess if it rarely snows here they really don't know how to drive in it. I made a little snowman from the snow on the balcony. The first one fell to his death so I made another one. This one had arms, he was much better than the first. Renee came back for lunch and brought two guys with her, pimps....just kidding. They were there to work on the radiator. I guess it was broken so that's why I've been freezing for the past few weeks. We have heat now. I showed her my snowman and she flipped out. She thought it was the cutest thing ever! She grabbed her camera and dragged me away from my lunch she she could take a picture of me and my snowman so she could show everyone. Great! Her family is going to think I'm a 5 year old or something. I left for class a little early so I could enjoy the snow some and take some pictures.

Literature class was actually interesting...how surprising. I was shocked that our professor graded out exams. I ended up getting a 17/20 which is REALLY good. I have no idea how I pulled that off...but whatevs I was happy with it. That night for dinner Renee made some sort or meat with potatoes. The other night she made this weird ham and endive thing and I really don't like endives. She opened the cover to the pot and goes, I made potatoes because I know you don't like endives. I told her about my grade and she goes, "oh well these are celebratory potatoes for a job well done!" or something like that. I was like, yeah when I get a grade that's lower than 14 we have to eat endives for dinner! She laughed for a good 5 minutes, no lie. She thought it was super funny. You kind of had to be there when I said it because it doesn't sound very funny on here.

Today I had my phonetics test and it was pretty easy. After class I went with Amber to lunch. We walked through the Luxembourg Gardens and even though it was super cold, it was worth it because it was really pretty with all the snow. We went to this little cafe for lunch. They have a student menu and you get a sandwich, a drink and a dessert for 4.50 which is a really good price. I bought a coffee to go with my pain au chocolat. Delish! I went to the Monoprix by the apartment and picked up a gift bag to put Renee's present in. I don't have any tissue paper so it's probably gonna look super dumb. I also bought a little box of chocolates to bring to London.

My plane leaves Sunday around 1:30 so I probably won't post tomorrow because I'll be packing and stuff...you know me, waiting until the last minute to pack! Lex said that she doesn't have the Internet at her house so I wasn't going to bring my computer, but she said that there's a coffee shop on base that has WiFi that I can use. So I think I'll bring it. Hopefully it will fit in my purse so I don't have to bring my backpack. It would be kind of awkward having to carry my purse, backpack and my big backpack with all my clothes in it. So, we shall see. I'll try to update in London, but I really don't know what I'm going to be doing when I am there.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!! en Francais, J'espere que tout le monde a une Joyeux Noel!!!! ....that might not be totally correct. I miss you and love you all!!

A bientot!