Christmas in California

It's so Good to be Home

And with that comes laziness so here are some pictures worth a thousand words:

Happy Holidays!

Home, Finally

Monday Night

Monday night our friends thought they would see us off before we went. It was nice since it was Bryan's last night in Bordeaux. We went to the pub by my house and stole someone's table. Yeah, I know we're rebels like that.

Preparations

Bryan and I got back to my place around maybe 11:30? I have no idea really. Then we finished our packing and got in bed by 1:30am. When my alarm went off at 4am, I was less than pleased. Bryan insisted we be at the airport early just incase there were any hiccups. We waited at his terminal for an hour and a half. Fun stuff, man. Then we boarded our separate flights to Paris and took off at 7am.

20 Hours of Torture

I arrived in Paris, picked up my bag, checked my bag, got some MacDo for breakfast (the French translation for Mickey D's) and headed to my terminal. The wait seemed endless, and my flight was a little late taking off because of the strikes.

I met a girl, Madeline, on my flight who was also headed to SF and had been studying at Sciences Po in Paris. I read the hunger games, took a 20 minute nap, and watched Bridesmaids only to discover I still had 6 more hours on that dreaded plane. I will save you the excruciating details, but suffice it to say that I part of me died on that flight.

Madeline and I ran through the airport, went through customs, got our bags, dropped off our bags, and made it just in time to board our flight in Texas. Our two and a half our window turned into less than an hour to get those things done. I was depressed to not have anything to eat in Texas, since my fat ass had already scoped out the restaurant list a week prior to travel.

I sat next to the loudest, most obnoxious man on my flight. This three hour home stretch turned into the most excruciating of all my flights. He would talk to anyone who listened. And even though I was ignoring him he said "oh she's ignoring me..." but continued to talk at me.

Plus 2 driving home

When I finally arrived in SF I was three hours into the most excruciating headache of my life. My mom picked me up at baggage and she had these precious things called Tylenol. Oh la la, I was even more glad to see here then. We stopped at Taco Bell and I enjoyed my burrito on the way home.

PIERRE!!!!

OMG I nearly died when we were reunited. He cried and I held him like a baby. After I mustered up the energy, I took a hot shower and then crawled into bed with Pierre. We snuggled. It was so great.

Now I am here, typing away furiously at 6 in the morning with a case of jet lag.. Whatever, I'm just glad to be home

I'll be Home for Christmas

WTF

Pardon me for starting my blog with an acronym including a bad word, but seriously WHAT THE FUCK?? Where did these last four months go? It all happened so fast. The semester kids are almost all gone, back to California, our real home. Todd is gone, Lauren left to Paris to pick up her mom who is visiting for Christmas, and Bryan is spending his last night here at Joana's. We (Bryan, Marina and I) will be taking a taxi to the airport super early tomorrow morning.

I didn't announce that I was coming home for Christmas, because it seemed so far away, but now here I am packing to go home for 2 weeks. It's such a short stay for the long plane ride, but it will be well worth it. My mom said Pierre might pee when he sees me since he'll be so excited; I said I might pee too.

Last Hurrah 

We all splurged and had an actual sit down lunch on Friday -  that's right, no Mezzo Pasta or Kebabs. It consisted of five sampling plates. Oh la la, it was so unimaginably good. We were so wrapped up in the food we didn't take any pictures. I will spare you the mouth watering details, and suffice it to say it was one of the best meals that I have had here.

Everyone went out Friday night, but my sick ass had to stay home and avoid the horribly stormy weather.  So, sorry, no story on that.

We exchanged gifts the night before Lauren left for Paris, Saturday, after Mezzo and banana bread beer. We all got such thoughtful gifts. It was so sweet.

Christmas in Bordeaux

The city has been covered in lights, and I really have to good photos to describe it's magic. But here's what I do have:

Random Stuff

I decorated my room in lights, it's pretty cute if I may say so myself.

I have been using all my will power to avoid the 3rd book in the Hunger Games Trilogy so I have something to read on the plane. Thus, I have been devouring Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest which is also the 3rd in his Trilogy.

OMFG

I will be home in less than 48 hours!!!

One Test, then Freedom

Linguistics
I spent the majority of the my study time this weekend studying syntax trees for my linguistics class. They're tons of fun:

After I finally mastered the art of tree making (thanks to help from Edouard, of course) I looked at my test today with no tree questions. Ça m'énerve ! All in all, I think I did alright, though.

Planning

We are trying to get everything in before Todd and Bryan go home. So hopefully in the future I will be talking about

• The UC cocktail
• Lunch with my buddies
• End of the Year Erasmus Party

Sick
I appears, in the process of getting better I picked up a new cold. Or this cold has some aftershocks. After class today I just wanted to shelter myself from this hideous weather and crawl into bed. So guess what I'm doing?

Distractions

I have picked up the Hunger Games. OH MON DIEU ! You have to read it. It is so so so good. All of my friends here have read it, so I wanted to know what all the fuss is about. I bought the book for my flight and thought I'd read the first few pages. The next day, it was finished.

Yes, it was that good. So good, in fact, that I went to Mollat the next day to pick up the second in the series, only come to find it was sold out until Christmas. GAHHH! It's okay though. I just broke down and bought the kindle version so I will be starting it after this blog goes up.

I will study for my last final (Thursday) if I can pull myself away from the Hunger Games... Wish me luck.

Random Questions: (It's been a while)

1. Will I ever catch on to French humor?
2. What did people do without IMDB? (<-- if you don't know what this is, you're living under a rock)
3. Why hasn't someone invented some better form of the umbrella... it's about time people. Put on your thinking caps because I'm sick of my head being the only thing that stays dry!

Oops

Sorry

Okay, so I will be the first to admit I have been slacking in the blog department. I really have no excuse other than my life just hasn't been exciting enough for someone to read about. However, I think the past couple of weeks will be sufficient for life material..

Marché du Noël
My friends and I have been busy trying to pick up gifts for our close friends and family with the little money we have. One place we have visited is the Marché du Noël, a street lined with temporary christmas stores. Most things were hand crafted, there were also tons of goodies and other foods.

And, yes, we tried the vin chaud - of course it was good. 

Shopping in General, Actually
I have been avoiding Rue St. Catherine like the plague because for 1) I can't afford anything and 2) it's a mad house. Think the mall the weekend before Christmas. It's utterly insane. Last time I was there I got jabbed by an umbrella, pushed by an old lady, and nearly ran over by a wheel chair. (Sometimes, if I stop to think, it really appears as if this country has eaten me alive.) But all joking aside, it is just craziness that I want no part of.

Wine
I'm going to try and lay off the wine, at least for finals week. Here's some pictures to reminisce about the good 'ol days (a.k.a. this past weekend before I decided to focus whole-heartedly on school).

Plus, I seem to have caught another pesky bug. Luckily, I'm feeling so much better than when it set in just yesterday. It was kind of a blessing in disguise because I was able to do a fair amount of schoolwork this weekend.

Wish me luck!