Joyeuses Paques!

Happy Easter everyone! Sorry once again I haven't been able to update on a regualr basis. It's been a busy week and now that I've given up on homework for the night I'll catch you up on everything I've been up to.

I didn't have my theatre class this week because our professor was away performing some play that he's in. So I didn't have his class on Wednesday and Friday which was nice. My only class on Wednesday was translation. We spent all 3 hours going over our packet of passe compose and imparfait.....that's the 2 main ways to conjugate French verbs in the past tense. There are also other ways, but those are the 2 that are used most often. There was over 30 exercises in the packet and it took us forever to go through them all. I felt really bad for this girl because she kept getting mixed up as to when you have make the subject agree with the verb and what not. The teacher kept correcting her. Everyone messed up though so she wasn't the only one. Needless to say class draged on and on like it always does.

Thursday I got my quiz back from Costello and ended up with a 14/20 which is pretty good I guess. We talked a lot more about Les Miserables and we also started talking about L'assommoir by Emile Zola. It's pretty good so far, it's just really long. In Madame Berthon's lit class I accidently told her that I didn't read the rest of Le Colonel Chabert. She only told us to read one chapter, and I told her that; to which she replied, well you didn't have class last week so you could've read the rest of it! She's such a sweet, old lady she wasn't angry or anything. I just gave her a smile and shrugged my shoulders. I really don't think she cared. She told us all what the book was about and we started watching the movie. I really like it so far. Gerard Depardieu is in it....he's Colonel Chabert. Madame Berthon started passing around this bibliography for another author for next week but she didn't make enough copies so I didn't get one. She said not to worry about it so I don't have homework to do for this week.

That night I decided to go to the movies because I didn't have class on Friday. After class, I walked back home with Chaniece, Collie, and Pilar (all girls in IPP) so Chaniece and I could drop off our things. I brought Collie and Pilar with me to the apartment and after dropping off my stuff I took them to the Orange (one of the phone companies in France) so Pilar could buy a phone. Chaniece met up with us and we all went to the Monoprix next door so I could buy some candy for the movie. Chaniece, Collie and Pilar don't have a year long metro pass and since it was the 1st of the month they didn't buy new ones because since we are on break for the majority of April there really is no reason to buy one. Collie had a few extra tickets left over, I don't know what Pilar did, and Chaniece went through every turnstile with me. It's kinda illegal but whatevs, I was the one with the pass. Chaniece, Collie and I went to the student cafeteria for dinner. I had pizza, obvs. There were a bunch of little kids there and I was this boy reach his hand all the way down his pants (like inside his boxers) so he could pick his wedgie. It was lovely. After dinner Chaniece and I rushed to the movie theatre. We got to ride on the 14 (metro line) which is my fav. I was so excited. We saw Alice in Wonderland, which is Alice au Pays de Merveilles in French, in 3D. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it. I would've prefered to see it in regular format and not 3D because the 3D hurts my eyes after a while. When I got back to the apartment Renee was asleep.

On Friday I really didn't do much because I woke up with a horrible headache. I had to shut my curtains (which I never shut) because the sun was hurting my eyes. I ate, hoping that would make my headache go away (it didn't) and then took a shower, which didn't help either. I went to lay back down after doing all that because I was in so much pain. Renee came back for lunch and said I didn't look well. We ate and I had sort of made plans with Chaniece to go to this park near by but it was raining, cold, and my head still hurt so I decided not to go and ended up watching Glee, Parenthood (which I just started watching and really like) and the Hangover, which I had never seen before and LOVED it, and then took a nap at 5:30. It was seriously such a lazy day. I think my headache finally went away around 8pm before dinner. Speaking of dinner...it was soooo good! It really wasn't even that fancy or anything. Renee just made pasta, cut up some smoked salmon, and made a sauce. I could've just eaten the smoked salmon but it was so good with the warm pasta. God...DELISH! Oh, I also finally got my package Friday as well :)

Saturday I was woken up by Chaniece's text message at 9:54 am asking what I was doing. I responded.....sleeping. She likes to get up at like 8 every day because she's weird. I can see doing that during the week because we have school, but on a weekend? Seriously... After I ate and showered we decided to go to the Fnac down the street to study. She said that there was a cafe in the basement so I brought my computer and homework and met Chaniece at her host family's apartment. The cafe was pretty sweet. I camped out on this giant white leather sofa and Chaniece grabbed a big leather chair. I ordered a coffee because I felt bad sitting there and not buying anything. I started typing my paper for Costello's class on my visit to Balzac's house which is due on Thursday. I have it all written I just need to proof read and make sure all of my subjects agree with my verbs because he's really picky about that. I bought Christophe Mae's new cd because it was on sale and I really like his music. I think I've talked about him before. He's a French artist and one of his songs is called Dingue, Dingue, Dingue (YouTube it...it's really good). Dingue means crazy or wild btw... I really liked doing homework there so I def. go back.

Saturday night I had a ticket to see Les Justes for my theatre class. The theatre was seriously out in the boonies/ghetto and it took forever to get there. I was on the 4 and it was so crowded...it was really bad. I was smooshed in a corner with this smelly black guy seriously right on top of me. Of course, he got off at the same stop as I did so I had to deal with his smelly-ness for awhile. I got on another train and was really worried that I was going to be late because by the time I got on it was already 8:20 and the show started at 8:30. I ended up taking the right exit from the metro and made it to the theatre just as the alarm was sounding that the show was about to start. I sat next to Alex (another girl in IPP) and Amira. I didn't see anyone else from class. The play was really good, it was just very emotionally draining and long. It was 2 hours 35min....without an intermission. I really didn't eat dinner that night (I went to McDonalds after Fnace and got something to eat there) but luckily I brought a handful of Starbursts with me. Les Justes is about this group of Russian terrorists attempting to kill the Grand Duke. They fail once but then manage to succeed on the second attempt. There really was no decor to the play. It was just a wall and this ramp thing. There was also a table and some small chairs no one used in other acts. The weirdest part of the play was none of the actors looked at each other when they talked to one another. They either looked at the audience or at the ceiling, wall, or just stared off into space. I really didn't like that. They all were super emotional about everything and there were a bunch of pauses. It's possible that there were a lot of pauses because the play was subtitled in English so maybe they had to go slow enough so it could keep up with them. The subtitles were above the actors on this little screen. It was nice having them there because when I didn't understand what they said, I could just look up and read it. I felt really smart when they would say the line and the translation wouldn't be on the screen yet, but I knew exactly what they said. And it wasn't a little baby whimpy sentence either....I'm so French it's insane! The play ended at 11:15 and I went straight home. I had popcorn for dinner around 12 when I got home. I didn't end up going to bed until like 2....

Today's obvs Easter. I heard Renee get up at 8 but then I feel back asleep. I swore she told me she wasn't working today but when I got up she wasn't here. I thought maybe she went to see a friend or went to church or something but she told me she hardly ever goes to church. I spent the day reading Les Bonnes for my theatre class because I have a presentation on Friday. I finished the entire play (around 111 pages) and then started outlining my speech. I'm the first to go (which I usually don't like to do) but I really wanted to get it out of the way and I figured that if I go first I don't have any expectations to live up to but my own so I can basically do whatever I want. I didn't get Easter dinner (because Renee ended up working today) :(

I don't have class tomorrow because all the schools are closed because it's Easter Monday. I haven't had Easter Monday off since forever. However, I'll probably be doing homework all day. I haven't even started the readings for L'assommoir yet for the week. I also have translation homework to do. I don't have class on Tuesday either, but I never do. I probably won't be able to update until next weekend because I have a lot going on this week. I have my paper for Costello's class, my speech, readings for Costello and theatre to do, as well as translation homework, and tickets to a play on Thursday. Oh, I also want to see Remember Me, which opens on Wednesday, but I might just do that on Friday.

Here's a little countdown....
12 days until London
17 days until Greece
77 more days until HOME!

Bisous et Joyeuse Paques!!!