C'est La Vie

Friday is where we left off, so it is where we shall begin. We skipped our run along the river and instead slept in to catch up on sleep :) Again, it was another beautiful day in Vichy so we walked around a bit running some errands and then went and bought masks for our masquerade party! It was a really fun party and everyone looked very nice. It was a birthday party for both Kristi and Melanie so there were a bunch of people there!!! After the party had started to die down, it was suggested that we should all go down to the river at like 2am!! I love this country! Hahaha So, we did! A big group of us trekked down there and were just hanging out. The stars out here are INCREDIBLE so I was fascinated by that fact in itself. Then Nico and Eleanor decided it was a good idea to jump in the river :) I was thinking about it... Literally had my shoes off ready to go. But I didn't. When it gets warmer I will though!! That was pretty much all of Friday... Hahahaha.

Saturday we had class at gross 8am... Ugh. That kills me. Almost literally. But Geoff being the sweetheart that he is, let us out at 11 instead of 12 so that we "could enjoy the beautiful weather and sun" :) And that we did!! After taking a quick nap (of course) we all headed down to the river in shorts and tshirts with all of our pasty-skinned glory!! It was awesome. There were so many people out and about just enjoying the change of seasons and basically just loving life. We laid out on the "beach" for a little while then joined some of our friends up on the grass for baseball and football games :) It was so surreal to just be there not worrying about anything and playing baseball in France... But so much fun! It really is the simple pleasures in life. Everything is finally a ridiculous shade of green (think super Crayola marker green) and there are flowers trying to bloom both on the ground and in the trees!! It's absolutely gorgeous!! Birds are out, ducks are out, and even more importantly, doggies are out :) frolicking and playing, probably just happy to be out of their homes! I don't blame them, I feel the saaaaame way. But following our riverside afternoon, we went to Flunch and had gelato :) It was perfection in a glass. That night we had a party at Nico's with everyone so that was again, a lot of fun. Hahaha that phrase seems very repetitive in this post... Whoops!! ;)

Sunday was a pretty lazy day for the most part. We slept in, showered, then went to Meng and Xiaohui's apartment and they cooked us the most amazing Chinese food I've ever had!!!!! (Well duh, it was authentic! Always better than the American wannabes...) We made Chinese cookie things with Nutella, a hazelnut/vanilla spread, honey, sugar, and beans in them! Don't worry, they were all separate cookies... And delicious! While we were making those, Meng baked some chicken she had marinated and oh my lanta. It was absolutely incredible!!!!!! I don't know how these girls do it, but they cook like fiends!! They then proceeded to make us fried rice! I was in love. They even cut up little hot dogs and cooked them in it!!!!! AAAAAAHMAZING!! Their apartment is ridiculously adorable too, just like them. It was such a great afternoon with great friends :)

Monday we had class in the afternoon, but Ellen, Kristi and I got up and went and ran some errands kinda early. For lunch though, I made some sandwiches and headed down to the river. I have this sweet bread so I took chicken slices (like turkey slices in the states but chicken), cheese, and RANCH and made some bomb-diggity sandwiches :) I grabbed my corn nuts and limonade as well and decided to just go walk around a little before. I meandered through the little streets in the heart of Veesh-town just checking it all out. I found a really cute road somewhere, but will probably never be able to find it again.... Hahahaha!! At the river I was just eating watching the duckies play in the water and see people walk by with their doggies. Something I've noticed a lot here -- people rarely use leashes on their dogs. They just walk and they dog follows (or in most instances runs ahead) of them but never gets too far. And the human is almost always reading a book WHILE walking! It's so bizarre! But these 2 guys came near where I was and they had 2 dogs with them and when I was reaching in my bag at one point, I look up to see a giant dog face right in mine and he was trying to get in my bag!! HAHAHA!! He licked my arm a little bit just trying to get around into my bag before his owner came over to take him away. It was really funny and when I looked over at him like a minute later he was just sitting there looking at me with the saddest look on his adorable little face! His name was either "Flush" or "Flash". I couldn't tell. I'm hoping it's the latter though... Hahahaha. Then I packed up and went to class!

Tomorrow (technically today) Ellen and I are going to BARCELONA, SPAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so beyond excited!! We get to spend the morning in Paris because we are taking the 6am train (kill me) from Vichy and will be in Spain in time for their dinner! Hahaha Oh and J-Biebs is playing there tomorrow night too... So we're hoping we somehow run into him or something since we're missing the concert. Hmmm... We are just really excited to get to relax and see some cool stuff and eat great food all in the sun and 70+ degree (Fahrenheit) weather! It's going to be great and I can't wait to blog about it when we get back!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!! :) :)

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

If you know what this title is from, I'm sorry :) If you don't, consider yourself lucky... Or at least your ears.
Soooooo I skyped with Katie today and she told me I need to update this little booger more than just once a week after I go somewhere cool. So here you are -- a little update of my daily life here in Vichy.
The other day it was wonderful weather (I'm talking like 60s and sunny people) so Ellen and I decided to go have a picnic by the river before class! I made some pasta salad (needs work) but it was pretty dang good!! It was just pasta, bell pepper, onion, mozzarella, and some salt. YUM-OOOOO!!!!! And I of course took my new signature drink, Limonade. Yes, that's how it's spelled because it is French. You can buy it at the grocery store here and it's basically just a carbonated water that tastes like lemonade. I'm in love. I literally bought a giant 6-pack the other day at the store and the lady gave me the weirdest look like I was planning to feed an army or something. Strange. But anyway, we took our food, backpacks, and sunglasses (FINALLY!!!) and just went and sat and ate and enjoyed the beautiful day!! Then we went to France as a Tourist Destination -- best class ever. Tuesday night I had a Skype interview for a MIS scholarship back in the states. It was a total joke because they just asked me a bunch of questions about how I like France and whatnot!! Hahaha I wish all interviews were like that!
Wednesday, I had French class in the morning then came back to the dorm and it was again, a gorgeous day! So I decided to pack some snacks and go hang out by the river again, this time solo. I packed up some red ripe strawberries and my new bag of corn nuts (yeah, buddy) and my limonade :) I also brought along my French magazine that I read - yes, read. I didn't just look at the pictures, Katie. And my camera!! I met a duck and named him Hector. He was sitting on the piece of wood in the water directly in front of me and kept looking at me. I was just waiting for him to come over for a corn nut!! But he didn't... :( He was silly though because he kept standing on just one leg! At one point he stood on one leg and took a nap before his friend came and told him to come with him. Then they both left. There were also a bunch of people out rowing on the river!! That was really cool since we haven't really seen anyone out there since we've been here (granted, it's been freezing until now, but still). It started getting really cloudy and chilly so I decided to go home.
Thursday I had class at 8:30am!!!!!! Ughhhh... But surprisingly it wasn't too bad. After class I took a nap then skyped with Katie for nearly 2 1/2 hours! Hahahahaha love it. Then for dinner I really wanted pizza so I convinced Josh to go with me since BJ didn't want to go for some reason... Haha (love ya, Beej). Ally decided she wanted to come too so the 3 of us went to find some good 'ol pizza in this town. We ended up at a place called "Wok and Pizza" (say it fast and it's funny. HAHAHAHA!) Yes, Chinese and Pizza. Sweet. So we got a giant pizza and some cokes. It was fabulous! :) Just what I wanted! Ellen and I decided we needed to look into things we need to do in Barcelona next weekend [IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASE EMAIL ME!!!!] but all we ended up doing was looking for places to go the weekend after that :) Hahaha we are wanting to go on a wine tour in the Auvergne region (where we are) because they are known for their wine all over the world. Bad news, all of the vineyards are obviously in the country so there aren't trains that go anywhere close and obviously we don't have a car... bummer. But alas!! Travel Agent Ellen and I found some places up north by Tours, France that have excellent wine tours and CASTLES!!!! Google image this baby: Château de la Bourdaisière. It is absolutely breathtaking so we are trying to go there one day and do a wine tour in the neighboring city the next day. They use the grounds of that château to film movies! It's amazing. I still haven't found a cheese tour yet and I am getting very upset because it is the same problem - country and no trains... I'm about ready to buy a vespa.
I've been losing weight like crazy and really just want some fried chicken so if anyone is feeling gracious enough to attempt to mail some chick-fil-a or Canes, I'm always ready to receive a package like that :) Hahahaha I have ranch now thanks to Nico so all I need now is some good 'ol fried chicken!!!! I attempted to make chicken nuggets the other night and they tasted like rubber... I'm wondering if French chicken nuggets aren't really chicken... Hmmmm. One of the many questions I have started asking since being here.
Ummmmm so that's about all I've got for ya, folks. It's late and we are going to run by the river tomorrow morning then go shopping for our Masquerade party tomorrow night so I am going to say bonsoir mes amis and ma famille. J'espère que vous avez un bon vendredi!
Bisous,
Hayley