This is a post.

See what I did there? I understand if you never read this blog again.

Hello again everybody.  Blogging. These last two weeks have been pretty good to me.  Let's jump right on in to it.

So every Tuesday night a group of us go the this bar Shakespeare's for a trivia, but this last Tuesday we went out in full force, I'm talking like twenty of us.

This picture isn't even from that night, but I needed some place to put it.

So there are four rounds to the quiz. The first round they play short movie clips, and then we have to name the film and actor. Since they are usually American films, we kick ass.  Then there is a round with music, and we had to name the artist and song, still usually American.  Then its two rounds of completely random trivia, this is usually where we get our butts kicked.  Like we were just hoping to maybe get sixth place.  It takes a bit of time for them to score each group's answers so by the end there were only ten of us: Me, Guillaume, Erica, Alysa, James, Kassandra, Katie, this girl who's name I still haven't learned ( I am so sorry), Kelsey, and... eff. I apologize to person number 10 too.  First place prize was a bottle of vodka, so we all had a small glass and it was the proudest moments of our lives in France so far.

Last weekend we went to Marseille.  I think its the oldest city in France.  And of Greek origin.  I could definitely be lying though.  Everytime I told someone we were visiting there, the only thing they would tell me was to watch out for thieves. Awesome.  Exciting. I'm going to get mugged.  Contrary to that, it was an amazing trip.  It's a port city, and the harbor reached right in the middle of downtown.

We had a fun trip. We took two different guided tours. One of a museum where we didn't actually get to see much in the museum... I don't know why either.  And another of the downtown city area. I also found  out I hate guided tours.  Still a lot of fun though.  We had a couple hours of free time so after I spilled some soda on my crotch and had to walk around looking like I peed my pants, we went up to this fancy church that overlooks the city. From the top you can see an island with a fort on it.  This fort was the inspiration for the prison in the story of The Count of Monte Cristo. NEAT.

So this is from the church thing, unfortunately I didn't take a picture of it, but in the right corner is that island.

On the right is a view of city from this neat Church.  On the left is the same view but with me and my squinty eye blocking most of it. 

EMERGENCY MEDICAL UPDATE: I also went to the doctor again Thursday.  I think its healing well, I have to do a catscan in three weeks after my winter break. I got a new cast too. It's slightly longer and more limiting than the previous. Fricking cool.

SO. Lets talk trees. (why)

These are super pretty almond trees.

I urge you all to plant them at home. I don't know anything about them except that they're pretty and probably wouldn't actually grow at home. My hostmom says that they stink, but I've had a cold so I can't tell.  They're everywhere here, so basically everywhere is pretty, and presumably stinky.

On the home front.  This weekend was the WNCC Gala. I'm really really upset that I couldn't go and watch. Especially cause it was these two's last year:

Two of my most favorite people in the whole wide world. Brother and Becca :)

Both amazing people.  Shoutout to Becca for being the best friend ever and chatting me everyday, even if its only to verbally assault me for leaving the country. I shared a video of her singing on my facebook so I dare you all to go watch it. Do it and you're cool. Also Chris got baptized today, so go congratulate him, punks. 

Today is also Kaden's birthday! 

Two of my other most favorite people in the world :)

If you see him today or sometime soon tell him Happy Birthday for me and that I love and miss him! Cheri Ann too! Six years old! I couldn't imagine life without the little monster!

Also my arm is cramping cause typing is hard, so I'm not going to reread and edit this post, so excuse my typos and errors.  See ya'll.

This is a post you've all been waiting for... mostly because I kept forgetting to blog.

Tonight at dinner I ate yogurt with prunes. And I liked it.
I'm so old.

First, sorry I suck at blogging. I just kept telling myself, "Shawn. You have that thing coming up that you should blog about so let's just wait til after," over and over. Oopsie.  So. A little preview of what is to come in this beautiful piece of literature: Lots of netflix, the beach, the city-state country of Andorra, another cave, my internship, being sick, and karaoke, but not necessarily in that order.

Alright. Netflix though. En fait (in fact, actually) I can't really watch netflix here because it doesn't exist outside of AMERICA. I mean I can if I change my vpn, but that seems hard and not like something I'm wont to do, so I use other television websites. Gotta have my fix of American Horror Story, Walking Dead, and Teen Wolf. Anyway what I'm getting at is, I'm finally getting into a bit of a normal routine.  I kept telling myself, "Shawn, you're in a new country!  You don't have time to sit down and watch 8 episodes of Once Upon A Time straight. [oops.]) Really though, I can't go running around everyday like I'm on vacation because 1) That's damn expensive and 2) I'm not on vacation. I am living here for a semester. I need to act like I do at any other time, especially if I ever plan to live here for an extended period of time. Normalcy and routine are great ways to get acclimated.  At least that's how I justify being a lazy ass.... Now to get back in the habit of running every night too. Eff.

La Plage. The beach. And the sea. La mer.  You's all gon be fluent soon 'nuff.  It was beautiful. Nevermind that its a 20 minutes bus ride, 20 minute tram ride, and half hour walk to get there, it's totally worth it. See?

Beautiful. Just like me. Aw shucks.

Now truly, it wasn't the most beautiful beach and it was kind of cold, but  I did really enjoy myself. I can't wait to go back for for a dip when it warms up, and I don't have a janky wrist. I went with some friends, Cate, Sandie, Emily, and Eric, and we had a lovely time. We picked up shells, climbed on this rocky peninsula-like thing that jutted out a little ways, told secrets, and took lots of pictures. 

Karaoke.  Baby. Oh. Baby. We are all about that life. Our program went to a bar for karaoke this last Friday night, and we definitely plan on making this a reoccurring thing. I sang with my two good friends Kimmie (as seen below) and Cate.  However when Cate and I sang it was under the names Judy (Garland) and Dean (Martin). God bless us.  Cate and I sang Love on Top by Beyonce and Copacabana by What's-his-name. Barry Manilow right??  Then Kimberly "Venus and Serena" Williams and I sang A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton. It was magic each time. See for yourselves.

This is what goes on in France.

(Sorry for the picutre Kimmie)

Tonight Thibault and I sang Let Her Go by the Passenger(s?). He played piano, and we sang together.  However being sick and singing far too much than I should've at karaoke has left me with a pooey voice.  Thibault, bless him, said he like my singing voice, though, so that's neat. 

Everything you need to know about Andorra can be summed up in one picture. 

What?

I don't even know. Read this. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra‎ In short, it's a small country in the middle of the Pyrenees that's governed by both France and Spain.  They speak French, Spanish, and Catalan, and it's a great place for skiing, a thing I cannot do due to my janky wrist. It was beautiful, though.  And four hours away.  But totally worth it, 'cause the drive was through the Pyrenees, and everything is Europe is just breathtaking to look at. Also, on the side of the mountain was this really neat light show. I have no idea why or what was going on, but there was this green light like lighting flowing back and forth. So cool. But it was a good weekend spent with my host family... I probably should have said that it was them that brought me. We went out for a drink, had a traditional dinner, played a card game, did some shopping and made lunch too.  A fun weekend for sure.

That's Andorra and some ski Slopes!

And this is a cave!

I really, really, really, really, really, really, wish I could show you guys pictures of what was inside this cave.  It was by far my favorite I've ever been to. So this cave is La Grotte de Niaux. Niaux is the petit village outside of the cave. Inside are cave paintings 15,000 years old.  Maybe 30,000.... I know that's a big difference, but it was hard to pay attention and they just kept saying those two numbers a bunch. Don't judge me.  Since the paintings are old, though, they don't have any lights in the cave, so they gave us each a little flashlight. It was seriously like exploring in there. Gah, I loved it and want to do it again!  The paintings were really interesting, too. A lot more detailed than I would have imagined.  Further in the cave, where we weren't allowed to go, there is also a painting of une belette (a weasel).  Apparently, this is the only cave painting of a weasel  ever found. Whoa. Weird. I don't know why that's supposed to be shocking.

Friends. Family. People whose computers have been brought to my blog by the many viruses I released into the internet. I"m going to try to blog a bit more often so there aren't huge gaps like this previous one, but bear with me, I'm in France and rather lazy. Also, if you just creep through my photos, my wonderful friends here have been much better at posting pictures of our adventures here. Also again, neeeeeerds, seriously who checks out my facebook. But really, shout out to Cate Speech, she's the bee's knees.  I'm going to watch Teen Wolf now because I'm cooler than all of you combined.  Bye-bye. 

UGH. I was editing this and remembered I forgot to talk about my internship. UGH. NGH AGH.. I'll do it next time.