Magic

So my chair is magically fixed. When I got home Sunday, I sat on it to avoid the one broken side and discovered it wasn’t broken anymore. I am most curious how this came to be, but I have not asked about it because I don’t want to admit I broke it. Here’s to not sitting awkwardly for eight months!

I had class today… not too exciting. At one point, I had really dazed off into my thoughts and realized everyone was drawing something on their paper and had to ask what the heck was going on to Clare. It is easy to daydream because I have to consciously make an effort to hear and comprehend the French whereas with English, I can multitask, and it isn’t hard to understand without physically trying.  This whole language thing has really opened my eyes to languages; it is hard to explain, but I just feel like I understand life so much more by half knowing this new language.

For instance, one day I told Jerome that Welcome and Bienvenue are the same exact word, and his mind was totally blown, but I was right. “Bien” means “well” and “venue” is the past participle of “Venir” (to come), so in other words “venu” means “came.” I just think that is so cool. Also the word “right” means “right as opposed to left” and someone’s actual “rights,” and the word “droite” in French has the same exact meanings! Ok I am done being a nerd…these examples are hard to think of, but I am so excited when I think of a new one because English and French have a lot of similar words. Even if you don’t speak French at all, you could catch a lot of words because they are essentially the same.

On Monday, I went to la Défense and had lunch with Nico because I didn’t see him during the weekend. I also went back to the Christmas markets to get a present for my host parents, but of all the booths that were open, the one I needed was closed. Go figure. I will go back again soon.

Sunday I slept in as usual, and I don’t think we made it out of the house until like 4pm when went to a nearby zoo! Oh fyi, I met the new roommate, Nico, who is super cool, funny, and nice! From what I heard, I knew he would be, but I am happy all the same. So Nico was along with me, Jerome, and Vincent. The zoo had a lot of owls for some reason, but they were pretty. They had a lot of panthers, and we watched them eat dead rabbits; a little morbid. My favorite was the wallabies because they were so cute! Then we headed towards a cinema for a movie, but it was way too crowded. That seems to be an issue here. I feel like we have an abundant number of cinemas, so over-crowding is never an issue. If you really want to see a movie here, you have to arrive like 30-45 mins early and wait in line. In America you only do that for like a midnight premiere pretty much. So then we went to KFC for dinner.

KFC here was a disappointment! No biscuits OR mashed potatoes ahh! KFC without those??  Doesn’t make sense. The food was good regardless of this monstrosity. Then we went back to the apartment, and I packed my bags to make the 7:45pm train, but when I arrived at my train station, the 8:45pm was the next available one. Damn strikes! My phone was dead so I was freaking out for a bit wondering how to contact my host fam, but eventually I found a pay phone that took change, and it all worked out. When I got home, the dad showed me the site where you can check the strike train sched, so on Monday and Tuesday, I have used this site to not get screwed over!

Tomorrow the kids are going to the circus, so that means I am off around 1pm. The whole fam is going, and I asked the dad when they would come back, and he said around 7pm, so I get the day off! I hope to go to Paris and hang out with the new roommate Nico because he doesn’t have a job yet. Idk how familiar he is with Paris, so maybe we can just be touristy and go to the Eiffel Tower etc. I am excited for a day off essentially. Although earlier tonight, the dad said he was gonna take my car to take the kids to meet the mom at work and leave from there (his car is old, so it couldn’t go such a long distance), but the mom told me this morning that she was coming back to the house to get the kids, so I really hope that is the plan bc that’d be shitty to just leave me here all day without a car. The mom is the boss though, so I think what she said will be right. Her words this morning were blah blah and “then you can go,” so I interpret this as yes, you can go to Paris!