Bored...

You've all been waiting for an update, I know. But to tell you the truth, there's not much to say. If you think I'm living some luxurious life in France, you're all wrong. Yeah it's been nice not having to work or anything, but I've been bored out of my mind! I'm glad I came early; it's nice to have things done and ready to go before work starts this Friday. But I opted to leave my entire Full House series at home instead of bringing it with again to keep me company. Worst idea ever. It would have been worth the over-the-weight-limit fee for my luggage, although they never weiged it anyway! After all, I had tons of free space in my suitcases. So the other day I went out and bought a radio... Something to keep me a bit more company than Justin Bieber's latest music video. Yes, I've watched it more than once.

Oh, you'll all laugh at this. So my shower is fixed and everything is good. But then I had to have the shower fixer men come back to check a light that kept flickering in my room. After verifying that I didn't want to live in a discothèque for the year, one of the men simply screwed the bulb in a tiny bit more than it already was, and voilà! I felt a little stupid, but oh well! I'm glad everything works as it should now.

For those of you who have never been able to bask (is that the word? never even tried to write it. I'll stick with "basque," because it's more appropriate) in the glory of a supermarket in a foreign country, you're missing out. And I'm not talking like, a little corner store. I'm talking Cub Foods grocery store. Better yet, Super Target (although those here are more comparable to a Walmart). Anyway, I could spend ages just walking around looking at things. It's SO interesting to see what they have. Things that are the same brands as we have in the US, just in French. Things that are the same things, just French brands. Things that don't exist in the US. It's cool to see the packaging. At home I don't mind buying the cheap stuff, but here I want to get all of it... the high-quality brands and the "crappy" brands, although nothing's crappy here because it's all different from home, so I wouldn't know the difference! And I've only eaten about 2/3 of a thing of Nutella. A small one, at that. In Pau by this time I'd been through a couple already. I'm off to a good start, I'd say.

My apartment is finally feeling more and more like home. The bed is COMFY with my great bedding purchase. I wish I could be as excited again as I was that day! Honestly, I've been spending the last week and a half just buying stuff to make my life easy. I have yet to go into a real boulangerie and café. Not interested yet. I'd rather be comfortable in my own living quarters.

Saturday night I went to Fabienne's for dinner. The kids are all still cute, nothing's changed. Eloi, the one I told you I love love love, was so darn cute. He kept handing me crackers from this dish on the table and putting them in my hand. I couldn't eat them fast enough. Finally I'd had enough, so I started picking them up and putting them in his hand, thinking maybe he'd eat it. Instead, he just kept giving it right back. He's my new best friend. :) Their friend Eric was there, and he and Fabienne talked and talked and talked. And you know how much I understood? Maybe 2%. Seriously. I was so lost the whole time. Made me realize how much I don't know in French. For anyone who's told me they think I'm fluent... HA! I don't think so. But we'll see what happens when June rolls around. It's hard when they all speak English to me though. I never asked them to speak English with me. And at this point, it's just awkward to speak to them in French because I KNOW they know English. (In case you forgot, Fabienne and her husband are both high school English teachers.) I'd rather just talk to someone who doesn't know any English. The problem is, everyone knows English! It's helpful if I'm, say, in Russia or Japan where I don't know anything about the language. But here, it's annoying. Yeah it might help me get what I want when the other person responds to me in English, but it's still annoying because once someone can hear my American accent, they just speak English. Not helpful in the long run for me! Oh well. Maybe I should be happy I'm fluent in a language everyone else wants to be fluent in.

It seems that I think of things to write in my blog quite often, but I forget it all as soon as I come to write about it. I think that might just be it though for now. Only a few more days until I start working again, and hopefully then I won't be so bored all the time. I've enjoyed it though while it lasted. September 2010 was perhaps one of the best and most exciting months of my life. For real. Until next time, my friends.