(The view from my balcony, looking up the River Saone)After class, we went to the SNCF store (it's pretty much like a travel agency) to pick up our TGV tickets to Arles, and then we went off to find some chocolate, particularly chocolate fish, since tomorrow's April Fool's Day and fish are a symbol of the day. Apparently you're supposed to try to pin paper fish on other people's backs. I really hope no one pins one on me, because I won't know how to react (en français) and that makes for great awkwardness potential.
Anyhoo, we went to a chocolatier on Place Bellecour, the big square in the middle of the Presqu'île (the part of Lyon on the peninsula between the Rhone and the Saone...the name means "almost island"). I didn't get any chocolate fish, but I did get a truffle-y thing with praline in the middle. And, oh, yeah, it was BLUE. If you stick a blue truffle in a chocolate case, I'm pretty much gonna buy it, if for no other reason than the fact that it's BLUE. Seriously. Who can pass on oddly-colored candy?
At any rate, when I got home this afternoon around, I don't know, maybe 3:30, I was the only one in the apartment. It was kind of nice. Don't think that I don't like my host family; it was just nice to relax without having to be ready to think or speak in French at any moment. (Something a lot of people on the program have mentioned is how tiring it is - you never really get to relax because you're constantly trying to do everything in a different language; your brain is constantly working. It's sort of like doing homework all the time.) At any rate, I had been thinking of going for a jog since it was so nice out but I decided to take advantage of the empty house instead. And by "take advantage" I mean: admire the view, clean my room, listen to some music, and start on my reading for tomorrow. Exciting stuff, no?
By evening everyone was home, and I was happily distracted from studying by Brune, my host parents' six (seven?)-year-old granddaughter. She came into my room and poked through my stuff a bit. She really liked my mascara and wanted to put it on, so I put a little bit on the very tips of her eyelashes. (When I was little and I played with makeup, no one would ever put mascara on me because it so easy to get it in your eyes and have it sting. I thus grew up thinking of mascara as some kind of evil, painful thing, and when I finally started wearing it, I was like, "Oh hey, no big deal. Why did everyone make such a fuss about it?" And then a kid asked me to put it on her, and all I could think was, "Don't get it in her eye. Don't get it in her eye. Don't get it in her eye." It was a little nerve-wracking.)
Anyway, she was also really fascinated by my Neutrogena Wave Cleanser (no product placement intended), a little plastic thingy that vibrates to help get deep into your pores (or so the ad says). She washed her checks with it and then washed mine, and promptly freaked out because she realized that I have zits (or, as she calls them in English, "buttons") and was afraid that using the Neutrogena would give her zits, too. I told her she was too young to worry about that. Nevertheless, we rinsed her face off about six times.
After that, she played with my computer some more while I got some more work done. (We spoke English to each other, because when I speak French, she says she can't understand my accent. It was nice of her to say so, since the real reason she can't understand me is because I speak the worst French on the planet. But whatever. She did compliment me on my very nice English-speaking accent, however.)
After dinner, she spent a good chunk of time trying to scare me (and getting frustrated that "you're just being funny scared. You need to be real scared.") and having me try to scare her. ("You didn't scare me.") Then she played with the computer some more and Olympe, the youngest, wrote some random letters on my French literature syllabus (the first piece of looseleaf I had handy to give her). We watched three big boats go down the river. It looked like there were parties on all three; one was all lit up with teal neon lights. ("It's shiny!" Brune gasped in delight.) The two of them went to bed, I finished my reading, booked a return ticket to Lyon from Avignon, changed into my PJs, and sat down to do a little blogging. Or a lot, I guess, considering the length of this entry so far.
In other news, Corinne, my host mother, is planning a birthday dinner for me next Wednesday night (the day after my birthday). It's sooo sweet of her. She invited Professor Tarnowski, the Dartmouth prof in charge of our trip, and told me I could invite one friend, so I invited Caroline, my travel buddy. I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to doing something birthday related with the group - going out to dinner or something - since Rachelle's birthday is the day before mine and there was talk of doing a combined birthday celebration. I dunno, I guess we'll see. Either way, I'll have to find a bank or something soon - I'm down to like 20 € and I need to cash in more traveler's checks. (I only cashed one at the airport. I don't know what I was thinking. A $100 traveler's check only got me about 66 €. I guess I just wanted to get out of there so I could go crash at the hostel. But still. Bad decision, Past Me.)
Well, I should get off to bed. Class starts at 9:15 tomorrow and it's nearly midnight. I'm gonna look through my French guidebook for stuff to do in Arles and Avignon, read a chapter of my book (it was sooo hard to stop after one chapter last night, but I did it!), and then zonk out. I'm exhausted.
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