This is a post 'cause I'm not going to do my homework.

I need to read about 50 pages and write a paper about the main character. Better write a blog post first. And write down my favorite French recipes so far.  And watch some youtube videos.  And read a book for recreation. And take a nap. And discuss the French Healthcare system with hostdad. And...not do my homework.  Crud.

Instead of doing my homework let's just talk about it instead.  It's a great little novel we're reading, "Kiffe, Kiffe" It's not like literature level reading necessarily, but it prompts good discussion.  I mostly like it because I'm learning a lot of slang and youth lingo. Mostly swear words.  That's fun!

For my internship class today we had to go downtown and do a survey, asking passers-by about their opinions on the healthcare system, the age of retirement, the 35-hour work week, and if universities prepared students well for the working world.  It was horrifying.  Confrontation isn't my thing, even in English. Make me do it French, and you can guarantee I'll not be having a good time.  It doesn't help that there are already a lot of other people continually asking others to sign petitions, either.  Most of them thought we were doing that and would completely ignore us and run off. However, clever that I am, I found that if I just yelled (in French this time) right away, "EXCUSE ME I'M AMERICAN," that they would often stop out of interest/probably pity. We had about a 60% success rate I think.  I'm glad we did it, though. I was able to speak to some authentic French people, and learned actual useful information about the culture.  For example, a lot of people are not for raising the retirement age back to 60 for all jobs.  Many people opined that some jobs are too physically taxing as a person ages, so retirement age should vary with the job. Very interesting stuff here.

I have a test this week in both Methodology and Phonetics.  I'm more excited than nervous. I think. Methodology shouldn't be too bad. If it's like what we've been doing, we will only have to read an article and then summarize within a set amount of words.  Not too hard and kind of fun. I believe for Phonetics the professor is going to speak some phrases and we'll have to write the phrase phonetically, like, "c'est bien" would be [sɛbjɛ̃]. I think it'll be pretty neat, if not somewhat difficult. LETS DO THIS.

Enough about cours, let's talk caves.  Yeah, guys, caves. As in I went to one this weekend.

This one was during a light show set to some neat opera music. Whoa!

La grotte de Clamouse.  Neat place, only about a 30-minute drive away.  It was super interesting, but also I don't know a lot of speleology vocabulary, so I kind of missed a lot information.  Let's be real, I don't even know a lot of speleology vocabulary in English.  I'll venture you probably don't either.  It's okay. Let's educate ourselves. Together. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speleology Knowledge is power! Shoutout to hostfather Pierre for this one, guys.  We finished lunch, and he looked at me and said, "Wanna go to a cave?" Um yes. Yes, I do. Always.  So ten minutes later we were in the car for the cave.  Love this host family, guys. 

Near this little grotte was a cute little village, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert.  When I say cute, guys, I mean this was literally the cutest, most quaint little place ever.  Like this where I want to spend my old, dying days.  Also there were tons of cats roaming the petite, little rues (streets). I saw at least seven in the hour I was there.  Anyway, here's the place. 

Look I learned how to save room and put pictures side by side!

So this little village is situated in a valley, so everything is kind of tiered, like in the picture on the right.  It truly is like a scene out of the movies about knights and kings and frickle frackle like that. I love it so hard guys. Also since everything runs down, there are tons of little gutter like things on the sides of all the streets.  Gutter makes them sound ugly, but they're actually like little petite rivers you can walk by.  Also there is an actual petite river. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll be getting another blog post about this before the semester is out.  I'll take more pictures, because its really hard to truly describe the wonder of this place. Just know you should visit if you're ever in the area. 

I really ought to get to my homework now, but before I go, one last picture. 

Some of you might be asking, "Shawn, why do you have a picture with a horse?"

My answer to this is, "Guys. Why not?" Also I'm not entirely sure. I was walking home, there was a horse, I had a phone with a camera... The rest is history. Adios mis amigos!

This is a post about breaking my fricking wrist.

Remember that time I went to France and broke my wrist within the first three weeks? Come on, Shawn. Step it up kid.

So here's what went down, yo. Friday night dinner went a little late, and I was supposed to go out with some friends.  But if I didn't dilldally around I could make it to the tram in time before the next one left. All should have been good.  So I leave the house en vélo (bi-cycle). After about 25 seconds I turn around. Wrong way. I don't even know how I managed that, I've lived here for near three weeks.  What the frack, Shawn.  I probably should've took that as an ill omen.  Anyway, so here I am, pedaling and pedaling down the street, going so fast in my leather jacket, thinking I'm quite the sexy babe, when a car comes up behind me.  Oh, I better get on to the sidewalk. I look at the curb and see that its getting smaller, as curbs do, so people can ride up on the bike path. PSYCHE. France is full of lies, namely when it comes to curbs letting people onto the sidewalk.  The curb did in fact get smaller but not enough to let me ride up onto the sidewalk. So boom, crash, and one very loud vulgar word later, I have crashed. I felt pretty cool, though, cause I fell but did the cool roll twice thing and was up on my feet. Apparently, however, I didn't spare my wrist.  The nice French lady driving the car that was coming up on me stopped to see if I was okay.  However, I cracked under pressure, and when she rolled her window down, I just screamed in English, "I"M FINE" and she just kind of nodded and drove away, slightly confused-/terrified-looking. Trooper that I am and not wanting to miss the tram, I jumped back on and continued on my way.  My wrist wasn't hurting at that point. My pants, though, have some fun little holes in the side.  I get to the tram stop, and lo and behold, I missed the tram and had to wait 25 minutes. Frickin' gat-dang frack.

That paragraph was too long and making me uncomfortable.  So sitting at the tram I start to realize just how sore that fall made me.  My wrist is paining me and my hip and knee, too. So far, though, no blood, but I decide to check under my undies for what my hip looks like.  Shoot.

Behold, part of my grotesque body.

This really isn't so bad anymore, and wrist aside, I'm feeling pretty dandy.  So the rest of the night goes well. My wrist starts hurting a little more, but a good night out with some friends kept me from worrying about it too much.  Until the trip home.  Walking my bike back uphill, one-handed is far less fun than it sounds, and it's a not very appealing idea to begin with. Then bed. Yes.

Saturday. Morning. Shower. Nigh fricking impossible.  Everything was done this day one handed.  Stupid.  I wouldn't make it as an amputee.  Hostmom Valerie, bless her, was the sweetest and cut all my food up for me because I was useless and incapable.  I pretty much spent the day in napping, resting, and being my usual lethargic self.  Wrist aside, it was a good day.  

Sunday.  Wrist is a little better. Could actually use my hand some.  Probably shouldn't have, though, since you know its FRICKIN BROKEN. Oh, also, I need to point out that I didn't go to the doctor 'cause it didn't seem so bad.  Hostmom tried taking me, but it was a weekend and places were either closed or busy and not really worth it.  But SisterSurgeon, my host sister who's a surgeon, came over Sunday for a snack and looked at my arm.  She recommended an x-ray.  Eff.

Whaddup Monday.  Arm is feeling better.  I constantly am walking around curling my hand into a fist, and it just makes me think of superheroes when they do the whole, "Power... growing. Feeling... stronger!" thing so I keep saying that to myself.  I hope you get what  I mean.  If not, you're obviously way cooler than me. Anyway, Doctor's appointment today.  Boy what a process. LEGGO

First: Doctor's Appointment.  Not bad. I show up, she say's I should get an x-ray.  Cool, let's do it.  Gotta go to the radiology place. I should say, not everything is the same big hospital here.  There are lots of little clinics around for each department.  Anyway. X-ray.  Waiting, waiting, waiting, x-rayed.  It's fun. Except for the finding out its fractured part. But I'm meeting lots of people and speaking that ole' French langauge, singing my song of falling off my bike like a bumbling child over and over.  After the x-ray it's back to the doctor so she can prescribe yummy medicines and a cast. Now its over to another clinic to have the cast done.  Here is the not so fun part.  Lots of waiting, about an hour, and then into the doctor. Who is, I come to find out, one of the best hand doctor/surgeons in all of France, I guess?  He looks at the x-rays and lays down the news. I might need surgery. Shut your mouth right there Frenchman.  Stop.  He goes to explain that I have two options.  Oh I should say what's wrong with my hand.  There is a fracture on my scaphoid, which is the bone at the base of your palm under your thumb, follow? Okay, so Doc says I can have surgery now to push it together to heal right or get a cast.  Uh, duh, cast.  Except. Now he was telling me this all in French, which, guys, is kind of hard to understand. I'd barely get it in English.  But I think I understood that there's a chance that the blood vessels would either get in the way of the bone healing, or kind of pool a little and make a little blockade thingie and then I would definitely need surgery to have the dead blood vessel thingies scraped out.  I go back in a month to have another radiographie (x-ray) done.  Fingers crossed,  guys.  Then is the little bit more fun part of getting a cast. Woo.

He didn't even let me choose a color.

Good thing  I like blue.  Maybe that's just not a thing here.  Or maybe he thought that I'm 21 years old and only children fall off bikes and I should stop sucking at life and don't get to choose. France is definitely winning right now. Anyway, guys, all in all it wasn't a terrible experience. I only cried like maybe twice, I got to see the French healthcare in action, I got my first cast ever, and I did some light reading. All in all, a pretty good weekend.  Aside from breaking my wrist.  SHAWNY G OUT.

This is a post about carbing up for the big game and traveling.

First and foremost guys, shout to my bae Lauren Reiber, my rock, my best friend, and the girl who continually shoots me down and breaks my heart. Bless her.

Secondly, lets blog.

Friends, bloggers, Mom, and everyone who reads this, I may come back fat. But that's the price you pay in France.  Generally in euros. Bad joke, sorry.  F'real, though, guys. I always ask Brother Chris if he's carbing up for the big game when we go out to eat, but I swear if I don't start doing something all this bread is going straight to my already meaty thighs.  Good thing I walk at least 420 miles everyday. Aaaye. Because I love food we're gonna chat about what I've been eating lately.

My emotions.

Today's lunch might have been my favorite so far.  Hostmom Valerie made fondue.  Oh man.  She used three types of Gruyere and I think some oil, too, I'm not sure, I was too busy pouring melted cheese down my gorge.  Fun fact, we say that in English and gorge is actually the French word for throat.  At least I hope we say that, maybe that's just me.  Whatever. Start saying it, spread the knowledge.  Anyway, we cut up two baguettes into little cubes and sat the bowl of cheese in the middle of the table on a little burner thingie and just took turns dipping our bread cubes.  So good.  Dessert is always good, too. We had fresh fruit frozen in this jello/jelly like stuff and topped it with English Cream. I'm not sure if we have that in America, but its great and sweet and I ate a lot of it with just a spoon. No regrets in France. Dinner was pasta, more carbs.  And so delicious.  I live for eating time here.

I don't remember if I've gone over how a typical meal goes here, so I'm gonna do that now.  If I've already done it, skip ahead or suffer through my poor attempt at blogging.  Our meals typically start off with an appetizer, whether that be puréed soups, half an avocado with shrimp in the pit-hole thingie, or something else, it's all delicious.  Then is the main dish, which is always yumtastic.  I'm not complaining, but they always give me a lot of food, and as soon as I finish my plate they immediately ask if I want more, and for some reason I can't say no.  Woe as me, doomed to eat a lot of food. Shoot.  Our main dishes have ranged from quiche, pasta, fondue, and fish, to cooked cabbage with carrots and beef.  Unlike the Etas-Unis d'Amerique, we eat salad afterwards because it's better for digestion or something. I have learned to love olive oil SO MUCH you guys.  It's just the bee's knees. Also, we have bread the ENTIRE time. There's just a baguette on the table and you cut yourself off a piece.  They also use the bread to wipe the plate entirely clean of any food juices.  It's just great.  Food Fact: Don't put the bread on the plate.  Just don't. Ever.  It always goes beside the plate.  Don't worry about crumbs or a mess, that's not very French.  Just put the bread on the table.  Then we have yogurt. Also for digestion I think? It's just plain old, natural yogurt which normally would be awful, but hostmomma brings out the sugar and jelly to add in, and I'm telling ya, that stuff can be so delicious.   Last is the dessert, big fan of that too. We've had flan, homemade pudding, pastries, that aforementioned fruit thingie, cobbler, and sometimes just plain fruits.  So much food.

Okay the other part of the blog I guess, now. Travels. So our program here takes us on four excursions throughout the semester.  This past Saturday we went to Pont du Gard and Nimes. Beautiful.  Lots of Roman architecture too. First up was Pont du Gard. Picture.

This thing.

So Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge.  Don't know what an aqueduct is? Educate yo'self: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_du_Gard The coolest thing about this, I think, is that it was all put together by playing Tetris.  Everyone just sat around with the little handheld game and, viola, there it was. Sorry, stupid.  What I mean is that this thing was built sans cement or anything like that. None at all.  They just shoved the stone blocks really close together.  And it's been holding for some 2000 years.  Neat! We also were able to cross it up top.  Guys, get ready for picturesque beauty.

I bet you were expecting a picture of me.

Anyway this thing guys. I couldn't get enough of it.  Someday when I'm not such lazy filth, I'll put up all my photos of the this place.  On to Nimes.

Nimes is a pretty rockin' city guys.  About 150,000 ish, it's definitely smaller than Montpellier, but just as neat, I'd say.  We had some pretty fun shenanigans wandering the city on our own, but the majority of the day was spent on a tour seeing the fascinating places of the city. Like this thing.

Yes that's a frickin' coliseum

This place was pretty neat, but sadly I did not get fight anyone in SUDDEN DEATH COMBAT.  Guys, the tour we went on in Nimes was very informative and our guide was amazing and when she spoke English did so with a British accent, but tours were not meant to last two and a half hours. 

Right before I took this picture, I was sitting down falling asleep.

They still use this thing today albeit not for SUDDEN DEATH COMBAT.  More like the Miley Cyrus concert later this month and bull fighting. Things like that.  Afterwards we saw a 2000 year old building that was important for some reason, but I was busy eavesdropping on the French youths surrounding the area, so I didn't really hear.  Then we went to this beautiful garden with an ancient temple, pretty flowers, some swans, and a tower.  Again, my lethargic tendencies require you wait for pictures, apologies.

Nimes fun facts!

1) The i in Nimes actually has an accent like this ^ but I can only type the shortcut for the accent in Microsoft Word, and as you've realized, I ain't about that life of "extra effort."

2) The actual fun fact: Denim was invented in Nimes.  That's how it actually got its name.  De is the French word for of or from, so De Nimes became Denim.  Whoa learning is cool!

This is a post about the night life and school.

Night life and school go hand in hand like being single and being bitter.
I don't even know what that means.
It's just my favorite thing to say.
Whatever. LEGGO.

Alrightie guys, so Wednesday. A day of classes and a night of going out.  Let's start at the beginning. Wednesday didn't start out too hot.  I get to UPV (Université Paul Valéry) only to find out from our good friend Sam that there was a big, old flub with scheduling. Long story short, I was an hour and half early for class and since my class was now later, I had to drop my other night class, International Crises and Equilibrium of Powers.  Shoot.  Really, though, I thought it sounded super duper interesting, but things, I believe, worked out for the best.  We'll get to that later. Let's start a new paragraph about school.

School.  So class today. Class today was La Grammaire.  I ended up testing into the highest level which I was super excited about because grammar is my homeboy. That is the life that I am about. (I'm editing this and realizing I said I love grammar and proceeded to end a sentence with a preposition. Who am I. Also, neeeerd.) Class went very well.  It was some easy review over different pronouns and pronominal verbs. We went at a fairly fast clip, so I'm excited to see what this class has in store for me.  Let's talk other classes now.  Earlier this week I had Internship class and Multiculturalism class. Also today I had Methodology.  I've quite a bit to say about all these classes, but they each deserve their own blog, which will come later, and honestly I want to blog about the night life already. YEAH!

Gotta represent America, right?

Okay guys, in my defense, I actually looked more French wearing this because the American flag is kind of a common pattern to wear here, like I saw a girl the other day with a stars 'n stripes scarf. So bam, reverse psychology, I win. Anyway.  As I said earlier, my schedule got all wonky and I missed my class. Dangit.  This worked out bien, though, because now I was able to accompany Sam and Madeline to the store.  Oh yeah. We went to the store because we decided to stay in town for dinner instead of making the 40 minute trip home to eat and then returning.  Forgot to mention that.  So store.  We bought, for about 5€ each: two baguettes, charcuterie meats (sausage, peppered ham, various pork meats), yogurt, lychee fruit, and two bottles of wine.  We then headed to Madeline's petit but lovely observatoire pour eating. Two hours later, full of bread, wine, and wonderful conversation, we decided to make our way to la fontaine to meet the rest of the program people.

Baby. Oh. Baby. Look at us. Wut.

Imagine it: 2014. Place de la Comedie, the largest square in Europe.  And 40 Americans congregated right in the middle.  Not conspicuous at all.  So we split into groups. Smart thinkings.  Luckily all my closest friends were in my group, except Cate. Damnit Cate.  She's short, and hilarious, and kind of like a cartoon character and we like her.  Anyway. Our group was still pretty bomb.com. We also got this girl Erica in our group.  She's kind of like a female version of me.  But like the + version.   We were a force with which to be reckoned.  Shouting, loud voices, cackling laughter, hips thrusting everywhere, Montpellier didn't know what hit it. And that was before the bars.  Vraiment, we had a great time, all of us! The whole reason for tonight was a social activity put on by the program to become familiar with the night life and meet les jeunes, the French young folk. I met one.  Go me.  Her name was Claire, and she was fun to chat with.  Anwyay, we did a tour of about 4 different bars, having drinks and a good time at each.  As you all probably know, the drinking age here is 18, so for some of the students this was their first time in a bar, as was the case for our Sam, Sandie, and Paige. Look at us.

Order: Erica, Madeline, Sam, Moi, et Paige.  And little Sandie up front.

So people of America.  That picture there?  Those are gonna be my people this semester. I've already decided they're perfect and going to be my best friends, and well, there's no way out of that once I make up my mind.  You's in for life.  Unfortunately for them, they got to see what kind of... lovely person I am last night.  Up til now, I've had a great time, but comparatively, I've been fairly reserved to how I normally carry myself.  You know loud, weird, somewhat inappropriate and awkward me.  So these poor souls saw what I can really be like last night after a bit o' dranking.  Good thing I've fooled them into liking me already.  I'm excited to just be weird as all get-out now with them and just really can't wait for the hunky-dory semester that is sure to come.  Yes frackin' please.

This is a post about eating dinner with a Bishop.

Remember when I said I wouldn't blog everyday. I lied. That's what I do.

So as the title says I had dinner tonight with the Bishop of Nice.  How does one get the opportunity to dine with a bishop you might ask?  I've no frickin idea, I'm still trying to figure that out.  Monsignor was apparently hostmom's priest when she was young and became a family friend.  I think. Gonna be real honest here, I didn't pay much attention tonight at dinner 'cause 1) Conversation was kind of fast. 2) Mr. Bishop kind of mumbled and was difficult to understand 3) I couldn't stop thinking about all the food.  That's the life I'm all about.

So guys. This food. We started out with a soup. It's pretty common here en France to puré the vegetables. So we had puréd celery, zucchini, turnips, and pumpkin with wheat germs. I think maybe some potatoes or vegetable like that too.  It was pretty delish. Next we had some nice salads. I did actually eat some. With olive oil. Look at me getting all cultured and things. Then we had a couple quiches. If you don't know what quiche is 1) Why not? And 2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiche The first was a cheese quiche, I devoured that right up, and the second was tomato quiche.  Not so much my thing. What I lived for, though, my blog-readers, was the desserts. Whoa baby.  So we had some cracker-cookie like things with this chocolate mousse-pudding like thing.  Not too sweet but choclety goodness nonetheless. Then, in this frozen little shot glass, French hostmom made frozen, ice-cream like coffee. I don't drink coffee, but this thing was out of this world.  I wish you could have some, so I could take it for myself.  Also bread and wine throughout the meal. Typical Frenchies.  Pour finir, we had some hot thyme water for the helping of digestion.  I acutally liked it, too. Super duper neat.

After dinner there was more conversating before hostdad Pierre took Monsignor away.  I'm not sure where to, like I cannot remember if he has a house or was at a hotel.  But, uh, the conversation.  Really I was just super stuff and super tired from beebopping around the downtown with good friends Sam and Madeline today.  It was a lot of fun, but guys, we as Americans do no walking AT ALL compared to the French.  I'm continuously tuckered out when I get home in the evenings. So uh, yeah, I did little to no participation during the last little talking bit and then tottered off to my bedroom as soon as Father French Bishop was out the door.  What a lovely experience.

Another note. (No bad jokes here)
I have over 100 views on my first post. Thank you guys so much, I really appreciate it.  But now that I'm famous and all, I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with the blog.  Ready the smoke, I'll be Pope by tomorrow!

Additional note.  Super great news. That stupid button from last time worked!! So here are some pictures of beautiful Montpellier. The first is just a picture of the street lit up at night.  It leads to some wonderful shops and bakeries. The second is of this beautiful, tall church we found.  The third is the Arc de Triomphe. Now I know some of you are thinking, "What a stupid, horrible French major. Even I know the Arc is in Paris." Well SHUTUP! There is another, replica-like one in Montpellier dedicated to one of the King Louis's.  Fourth is a picture of an aquaduct.  That's pretty cool. And last is a picture of a building surrounding the city square. I just really love the architecture here.  Also I think the round spire-thingie on the right side looks like an old-fashioned diving helmet.

This is a post about me getting to France.

Guys. I did it. I'm in France. Well I'm in France again.  I like it.

Okay so, heads up people of the world, and by people of the world I mean the six people who will actually read this, this is probably gonna be long since I've already been here for 3 days.  But, uh, here we go.

So. I left the U.S. of America the first of January.  The family (bless them) dropped me off at the Omaha Aeroport that morning at 8 where I met Kassandra and Madeline, both girls from UNL going to the same program. We like them. Oh, I guess I should speak about the program too...  My program is through the University of Minnesota and I'm studying in Montpellier, France at the Université Paul Valéry. There. So, Sandra, Madeline, and I flew to Detroit where we had a fairly uneventful eight-hour layover  However, when we went to board our flight to Paris, I found out that I had been upgraded to premium seating. Baby. Oh. Baby. That meant I got a bigger seat with a leg rest, champagne with dinner, a free fanny pack-like thing, and a bigger blanket.  Even better the girl next me that I met was in the same program. How neat.  The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. We landed in Paris, ran to our last connection to Montpellier and took off. When we landed, we got our bags and made our way outside where we saw a French man holding a sign looking for University of Minnesota students. Hot damn.

Right.  So now it's the second of January if you didn't catch that. Now we're taken to a hotel in the center of the city where we'll stay for a day until our host families pick us up.  There aren't many guys in the program. Actually only six.  And only five were at the hotel so I only had to share my room with this boy Sam.  Sam is pretty neat, guys. So we get settled in and go hit the town. Let me tell you guys. This place.  Man, this place.  It's pretty darn neat and gorgeous. Let me see if I can put a picture in with this button. Well that's stupid.  Blogging is hard than you think.  Just creep my various social medias for pictures I guess.  Anyway, Sam, Kassandra, Madeline, Paige, Beth, Kate, John, and I went out for dinner before bed. We stopped at this rather neat Kebab place and got us some taco-like burrito sandwich things. They were pretty neat.  Also. So Europe is old, right.  So all the streets of the cities, which are also old, are smaller than normal.  Not usually fit for a car.  While we're ordering food this man in a van comes rumbling down the street and just kind of hits this lady sitting in a chair.  Seems like a pretty scary deal, right? No one cared. At all. God love the French.  Someone yelled at the man to stop, the lady got out of the way, they kind of both mumbled under their breath and it was over. Pretty cool, yeah? So after dinner we continued our littler tour of the downtown area. Saw some neat stores, lots of cafés, some bars, and about 12 lingerie shops. Those Frenchies.  Jetlag was starting to settle in so we went back to the hotel and readied ourselves for the next day.

January 3rd. Here it is.  Rough morning. I set Sam and I's alarm an hour late so we had only 30 minutes to ready ourselves. Oops. Sorry Sam. Otherwise things went fine. Today was orientation at the school.  Around 9h (this is how you write time in french, i.e. 14h56 = 2:56pm) we left for the office a little ways from the downtown.  Here we got the laydown of the rules, the city, and the school.  We listened to people talk about things, walked to campus, and looked at a list of classes to choose from. Almost all the kids in the program are pretty cool. Almost.  So I tried to make a lot of friends, too. Tried. After all that junk we headed back to the hotel to meet our host families.  Cool.  I really like my host familiy, guys.  The de Boutrays.  I live with Valerie, Pierre, et Thibault (Tee-Bo).  Thibault is 17 years old, and an amazing host brother.  After we got home, we had chatted for a bit, had an authentic 6 or 7 course meal, I can't remember, and then I hung out with host brother for a bit.  That night he gave me his old iPhone3 and helped me order a SIM card online so I can talk to all my friends that I don't have yet in France.  Ain't he great! That night jetlag again kicked my butt.  Up at 5h for two hours before a bit more sleep.

Saturday the 4th. Host father Pierre took me to town today via tram.  He's an engineer, funny, and good at explaining public transport.  We had to go downtown so I could register for classes.  I signed up for Comparative Constitutional Rights and also International Crises and Equilibrium of Power.  Why. Why. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy.  It shouldn't be too bad.  I hope.  Then we went home for dinner and afte,r host brother Thibault brought me back downtown via autobus to meet up with my friends, Sam, Kassandra, Madeline, and Paige.  I think we're going to be a reoccuring bunch, plus Ben, another boy from UNL who is not here yet because of the stupid VISA.  I like all of us together.  So that's good. Anyway, helpful Thibault got us all tram passes and helped the others buy phones and set up planes.  There were only a few comical mishaps but I'm tired and this blog is long so you won't hear of them.  Afterwards Thibault went off to hang out with some friends and we continued about the city.  This entailed going grocery shopping at three different stores, getting lost, being super tired, lots and lots of walking, some sitting and complaining, pastries, and then meeting back up with Thibault. At this point friends said goodbye since jetlag and a long day were killing us, but Thibault wanted to get a drink so it wasn't very late so we met more friends, Kate, Beth, and James and had a beer downtown which was great fun you can only imagine because I'm still tired of typing. Much fun later, we returned home, and I went to bed only to be interrupted by more jetlag at 6h this time.

Star date: January 5 2014.  I keep forgetting its 2014.
Today was a super fun  day.  My host parents were out having dinner with the Bishop from Nice so I spent the morning with Thibault.  This kid is hilarious guys. And sings and plays like 6 different instruments.  Kill 'em dude. So Thibault and I went for a bike ride around our surburan area place. DON'T RIDE BIKES IN FRANCE GUYS.  They go really fast and really far and its mostly uphill and the wind blows hard against you the whole time and I hadn't ridden a bike in a very, very long time and that's how I almost died today.  It was fun, though, and we're going to make it a regular weekend thing.   Afterwords we returned home for dinner and host brother cook chicken in a sauce made from coconut milk and ginger and rice for dinner. It was super delicious guys.  Then I headed au centre (downtown) to meet Samuel, Paige, and Madeline.  We are so much fun, guys.  You should be jealous.  We had a fun day exploring the town and finding Montpellier's version of the Arc de Triomphe and a really pretty park with some awesome old buidlings, statues, and an aquaduct.  We finished the afternoon with pastries and café and returned to our respective homes.  Dinner was unnoteworthy but super fun and delicious and that's all you need to know.  The bike ride wore me out so after I proofread this stupid blog its bedtime.

A couple notes
A, F, C#, D♭.
I'm sorry that wasn't' funny.
1. The weather here is awesome and it sucks to live in the U.S. It almost never snows there and the temperature stays between 40 and 60 degrees.  Its kind of funny because we all take light jackets and stuff out and everyone we see has on winter coats and hats and scarves because its their winter.  They don't know cold.
2.  I'm not going to blog everyday out like I did in this blog.  I have better things to do.  But I will blog about the fun things that happens to me.  Also the not fun things.
C. Enjoy my blog. Or at least enjoy mocking it.  Bonne nuit mes amis!