Day One KIS

Break out the chips and monster audience because it is time for the Kaiserslautern Invasion Saga. The next four blog posts are going to follow my cracked-up adventure in Kaiserslautern Germany. These entries will be long, read at your own risk. Now, commence the digital ink!

January 25^th, the travel mayhem begins.

Oh audience it was so nice to have a later train time. 9:00 AM is must more feasible than any hour before it. I had everything ready to go as well; the backpack was thoughtfully packed with essentials for travel needs and extra space for travels needs. I also had a blue fleece blanket in an old New Yorker (clothing store) bag that would be used for sleeping purposes once I reached Caitlin’s place. You all remember Caitlin right?

Flashback:

She’s my childhood friend from back home who met up with me in Paris at the end of my fall break Lyon trip. I made a pack to visit her second semester when I had more time.

Well as you all can see I was a prepared traveler who had an awesome train time. If only the trains weren’t such a pain in the ass some days. The non-direct train which I took from Le Havre to Rouen to Paris was expected, no issues there. In fact I made it to St. Lazare without a single problem; my ticket was in order, the conductor was polite, and there were no delays. I reached  Paris with time to spare, a nice benefit since my next train was leaving from a different station.

Paris is the heart of France and in order for a heart to beat it needs some veins and arteries made of railroads. Unfortunately like in an obese American heart, France’s veins and arteries can become clogged when technical issues arise. My train landed in Paris’s Gare de l’Est on time. It even left on time, not a minute after the printed arrival hour. However, halfway through the journey to Kaiserslautern an artery became clogged.

Ladies and gentleman this train will be terminating in Strasbourg due to technical difficulties. There will be another train at this station which you may use to continue to your final destination. We hope that this has not inconvenienced you or your families. We at ICE wish you a pleasant rest of the day.

ICE must stand for Irrational Commuting in Europe. Inconvenienced? Oh how that word makes my blood boil. Everyone on the train did a simultaneous face palm, funny sight. 

Sure enough the train halted at the Strasbourg train station and we were forced to exit. However, people began to board the train. In France technical difficulty means “returning to Paris”. If that weren’t enough to tick people off, the new train that we all were supposed to board was already full. Being the charming and generous person whom you all know and love, I stood in aisle and allowed an older woman to sit down. An unattractive Mrs. Robinson decided that her purse needed the seat next to her more than any of the people without seats. Kindness must have been her middle name. I stood the rest of the way (only about forty minutes, not bad) while listening to my I-pod and chowing on a pink lady.  Inconvenienced, you bet your damn life.

Transition to forty minutes of Elton John later, I arrived in Kaiserslautern. I luckily knew that one of the passengers spoke English and asked him at which station we were. I would have been able to read the Kaiserslautern sign had I been sitting down, but the windows were low enough that a standing person could not see anything but tracks outside. He told me, “Kaiserslautern,” and I hopped off the train as fast as I could. Good thing too, three seconds later the train rolled away in the direction of Frankfurt. I had made it to Germany. Bout time too!

Caitlin was there to greet me with open arms. I was worried that she wouldn’t be there due to my later arrival. I would have called her but my phone apparently only works in France. Such a joy to find this fact during my trip. No phone on the trip, worse has happened. After we released our embraces from one another she lead me to her flat. Well, almost. An epic quote from Caitlin, “this is your first time in Germany right? Let’s get a beer!” Who wouldn’t agree to that?

I was taken to her favorite bar which was an old school pub that had the vibe of “yes you’re in Germany” painted all over it. I dug it. The beer was a general German beer (no I don’t remember the name) and tasted like a beer. Shocker. I realize that although Germany is glorified for its beer, a beer is a beer. In the States our cheap college beer blows because it is cheap. Our good and great beers are far better because decent time is actually taken to make them. This German beer was fine, just like all good beers.

One beer and one block later we reached Caitlin’s apartment. Cool thing is that it was the penthouse of the building, stressful thing was that the two of us had to clean the place and make some hummus before the potluck later than night. Aye...let’s do this.

The hummus was a new experience for me, I’ve never made it before. We didn’t have a blender to use but Caitlin did have forks, lots of forks. I am now an expert at mashing beans into a paste-like substance. In the end the hummus was a bit on the watery side (totally not my fault wink wink) but was very tasty. In fact I ate most of it at the potluck, along with many other dishes. Potluck equals tons of food, as if I wouldn’t. But before we took off for the delicious platter of plates I met Peter and Tuuli, two other guests staying at Caitlin’s apartment, who hailed from the Netherlands. What an adorable couple and a couple of delightful people. I went on with them well, fortunate seeing as we were staying in the same flat. Forward march to the potluck!

I’m not entirely certain if my eating habits are attractive, but they are certainly entertaining. I suppose it is my size; most people don’t expect a little slip of a girl to gorge herself on a buffet of food. Honestly audience I can never help it since food is so yummy and there’s so much of it at events like potlucks. Barbecues in Chicago summers are worse, those burgers disappear when I’m around, but a collection of foreign dishes is also in danger of being inhaled by yours truly. My favorite cuisine of the night had to have been this ham pasta combination. It was saucy and porky, perfection.

After my face was thoroughly stuffed...WITH FOOD! Nice try audience but my mind is far filthier than yours. Huh, maybe you wouldn’t have noticed the word play without me telling you. Oh well too late to fix it! After I had eaten a third of my weight in food I made the decision to engulf some beer. I did not become wasted (you need not fear) but was at a swell happiness for the rest of the night. Speaking of the rest of the night, it involved the socializing of my favorite form. Once more, please guess audience.

If you shouted “talking, that’s what you love to do MareBear” then you’re wrong; the only person besides me who is allowed to refer to me as MareBear is my older brother. The socializing was talking though, that part is correct. Oh what fun I had spouting random subjects left and right. I’m certain that I showed my naïve colors as a college student, but no one seemed to mind too much. The other people were young travelers who were all involved in a website community known as Couch Surf. I was able to meet and speak to many of them but failed to remember most names. Damn society for making conversations start with “hi I’m so-and-so,” much harder to remember right away rather than after you know a little bit about them! For example if you are able to pin a fact to someone like, “the American who is living in France and has a dolphin named Georges is Mary,” it becomes easier to remember the name since you have a person to reference. Science of psychology people! Wait, is psychology a real science? I’m not sure, going to say no. Just like Pluto isn't a planet. Now that I've said the words it is fact. Ah science.

After the potluck a partial party of the party moved to Caitlin’s favorite bar (I don’t remember the name because we were introduced before we learned anything about one another). There more talking occurred, mostly with some New Yorkers. If I recall, Scott was teasing me about my ideas of France’s socialist government. I don’t know what he thought the word meant but my interpretation is along the lines of, “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” Synonyms, communal or brotherhood. Thank you Oxford dictionary, you have assured me of being right. 

Honestly I was probably spitting rubbish which would explain why he was laughing at me. People alcohol and poor debate skills do not reflect well upon intelligence. I have yet to fully learn this.

            

The other soul (from Peoria) who tolerated my blatherings was Mike, a guy who actually lived in Kaiserslautern rather than visiting it for the Invasion. He was down to earth and a good listener, poor dude suffered my chatterbox nature. At least he avoided the Underground Club, that was sensible of him. My group was not as sharp.

The Underground Club was a German club, surprise. It had a four euro cover which came with a shot ticket. My shot was jagermeister (duh) and was done with other people, namely Amy. Ah, Miss Amy. She needs to lighten up a smidge. Being a travelling musician she is moody to say the least but pleasant in her own right. I talked with her and wasn't bored or irritated, but a few more smiles wouldn't harm her life.

The rest, well there wasn't a rest of the Underground Club. We all left after about forty minutes. Why? Two reasons; we were bored, and the club was filled with poser punk youths. If there is anything worse than a regular youth it’s a poser youth. I took a special offense from these kids, punk has been one of my labels (I think it’s the amount of black in my wardrobe and my spiky personality) and I don’t appreciate kids who work at it. Chances are if you are trying to be something that isn’t natural, then you’re a poser. If this is the case for you get the hell off my blog! (oh that’s right, get was used outside of quotation marks)

Aside from that fit of overreaction, my night was awesome. Sure the Underground Club was a bit of bust due to the price versus time spent, but it was interesting to find a poser punk gathering in Germany. We all returned to our respected homes for the weekend after leaving the Underground Club. Caitlin and I slept upstairs while everyone else stayed in their assigned rooms. Best night’s sleep in a long time. Damn you Crous, why can’t you give us German mattresses?

Tomorrow will dawn another day except this one will not only have German beer, it will also possess a hike. 

January 24th

Why do I love to torture myself? Today was the first day of morning hell. I was up at 7 AM and ready to go to class at 8 AM. Needless to say I made it there just fine. The walk wasn't so bad, in fact I prefer it to my afternoon walks to university. Thanks to winter it is still dark at eight o'clock in the morning meaning no pesky sun to ruin my vision. I enjoy that. The class itself was weird and interesting.

My art history professor is similar to professors in the States; this means that his teaching style is vibrant and full of life. He doesn't monotone his lectures but rather moves around and draws diagrams on the board for clarification. I think that we will go along nicely. The weird part was my classmates. They were the exact same ones from my two literature classes last semester. I literally mean they were the same, not a single new kid! What is it with this university and class cliques?

Once that lecture was over I swung to the Carrefour grocery store for some breakfast. Being sensible, and having a craving for fleshy fruit, I nabbed some apples. Lucky for me they had my favorite variety, pink ladies. The price was decent too; I bought four fresh apples for less than a euro. Almost immediately after I thanked the cashier I began to scarf down one of those suckers. I devoured the helpless apple in huge greedy bites. Divine my lady simply divine.

It was then that I found myself with over forty minutes left before my next class. I allowed the remaining in between time to play out at the library. Forty minutes dies fast when you're on the internet. Too soon did I leave my post at one of the ancient French computers for my course on history of religions. This class was also weird.

What is with these damn French cliques? It's like a bad high school movie from the eighties. Each group strictly stays within themselves and scorns any outsiders. The outsiders this semester are an old lady and me; we both "happened" to sit by one another which no doubt enforced this idea. The history kids were surprised to see me alone. For some reason they believe that I don't understand any French whatsoever. The joke is on them, listening comprehension is one of my stronger areas. They were confused as to where Paula was and why I was still living in Le Havre. Oh the joys of French gossip. I would like to say right now that I do not in fact own a surfboard nor do I acquire a new boyfriend every two weeks. Honestly they need to check their sources, my guy pattern is more like every two years. Also there's not a proper coast in Chicago to surf!!! Oceans = Surfing, Lakes = Sailing. Geography yeah!

The class itself was a standard introductory lecture, boring. On religious histories, BORING! Oh well a class is a class. Fortunately I have my old history teacher (professor Sansy) which means she is already familiar with my foreigness. She also knows that I am exempt from speeches since they are graded on flow and language rather than actual content. All I have to do is read, take notes, and attempt the final. Simple as pie.

After that strange lecture I was free to leave the university to do some errands. Damnit. I had the privelege of walking all over Le Havre to accomplish two tasks; mail a letter and return public library DVDs. Easy right? Yeah both were easy but the time taken was slow. I mean  s   l   o   w. Doesn't help that the post office near the university is on the opposite side of town from the public library. You want to know how long it took me to do just those two uncomplicated chores? You really want to know audience? It's a sad amount of time. An hour and a half almost exactly. That was how much time I used to mail a letter, return some DVDs, and walk back to my dorm. Needless to say I was exhausted. Fortunately I had class at five thirty meaning I couldn't nap without the risk of missing the first class day. Do I need to say it? I do. Damnit!!!!

The five thirty class was the lovable language course with M. Ardouin. Life is just so pleasant for me! If you recall audience I wasn't fond of M. Ardouin last semester. Doubtful that my opinion will change. Regardless I was there in my desk with my notebook and magic erasable pen. Whoo. Class was nice and laggy just like a dial-up connection. In fact M. Ardouin somewhat resembles those old school noises that computers made when they connected to the internet. Just a whole slew of hissing and irritating beeps. It was bout dat time I realized the girl scout was two stories tall and from the late Paleozoic era. I said, "Damnit Monster, I ain't givin' you no tree fitty." Well that proves it, due to lack of sleep I have once again lost grip on sanity.

Hooray the blog is done, almost, not quite, one more paragraph, damnit! Ok final note on what occurred on this long long LONG day. When I was back at the dorm for good I decided to check my mail. In my little mailbox was an international letter, uh oh. It turned out to not but such an uh oh but more of a face palm. Chase (my American bank) had once again screwed up my France situation. They had decided to freeze my card because of "unusual activity" happening in a foreign country. I had told them months ago that I would be in France for the entire year. They only half listened. Thus once again I told them that all transactions in France are done by me unless I tell them otherwise. Head banging into wall.

At least it is done Marebear, at least all the annoyances are done. Time to finish packing your Freshman backpack for tomorrow. Remember you're going to visit your friend Caitlin in Germany over the weekend. Let's finish that and then have some sleep. Sounds good Marebear, I think I'll do just that. Later Loners!

January 23rd

Today was my first official day of classes (according to me FLE doesn't count) which was pleasantly easy. The first class of the day was Lexicology or the study of words to put it simply. This class should be interesting for three reasons:

           

            -First, it is the lexicology of the English language.

            -Second, its lectures are in a mixture of French and English

            -Lastly, I am taking it with Jessy and Kate.

           

Talk about craziness a class shared with those two! Kate and I have had classes before with one another and are not too distracting. Jessy however is a natural distraction, a hilarious distraction, but a distraction nonetheless. He is a French friend of mine and very charismatic in just about every manner. He is useful though when it comes to the French section of the lecture. If I don't know how to spell a word or am unsure of what the teacher just said Jessy helps me with his notes. I do the vice versa for him making it a nice balancing act.

I was rather proud of myself during this first lecture. During the second hour of class my professor began to explain the parts of speech in English. She stated that there were nine (including articles) and wrote them one by one on the board. I had all nine down on my paper before she hit the third one. Jessy did not believe my work and was convinced that I was wrong. Heh, it is never wise to challenge me on a subject I am familiar with. I will fight tooth and nail for my answer even if it is not fully correct, I don't care. My pride and stubborn attitude always refuse to let go. Plus I'm an English major with a grammar book; the parts of speech are basic for me.

It turned out that I was 100% correct; my answers matched the professor's perfectly. Then happened an exercise which I also dominated. The teacher wrote five sentences that used the word "round" in five different parts of speech. They were if memory serves,

                        A round. (noun)

                        A round shape. (adjective)

                        Round your Lips. (verb)

                        The wheels of the bus go round. (adverb)

                        He sailed round the world. (preposition)

                    

Guess what audience? Mary answered/guessed all the correct responses. That's right go me! Sorry to be obnoxious about this minor victory/win but it is nice to know that some knowledge actually does stick with you. Moving on.

After lexicology came nursery rhymes. It is exactly what it sounds like a class all about nursery rhymes. The teacher (an animated Welsh woman) asked if there were any Anglo-Saxon students in the class rather early on. I raised my hand; my hand happened to be the only one in the air. First though, oh joy. She was pleased as punch to see a hand up and asked for my name. I knew that if I answered then I would forever be the teacher's helper and perhaps dubbed her "pet" as well. Whatever, a pet usually receives good grades. Throughout the class she would reference me on several parts of her lecture. For example she asked me if I knew who an egg-shaped doll represented. I answered, not surprisingly, "humpty dumpty." Apparently the

French don't know who Humpty is which is somewhat of a shame. A dumb egg falling off a wall is always funny. Once I answered she threw the doll at a student, who wasn't exactly aware, which caused the entire amphitheater to erupt into laughter, except for the Humpty Dumpty victim. She is going to be one fascinating professor.

That was all I had today. On most weeks I will have three classes on Wednesday, but my creative writing class with Mama Duck does not start until next week. Such sorrow! Once classes were finished I grabbed some take-out panini sandwiches and bought two cartons of orange juice for Kate. Poor sweet Kate was sick today with a forceful cold. She asked if I could nab some extra papers for her as well as some orange juice. I did both of course (part of the whole friendship and being a decent person thing) and even gave her some Nyquil to help ease the symptoms. Hopefully she will feel better by the weekend. Colds here suck because there aren't too many sunshine filled days. Fresh air is necessary for a speedy recovery and Le Havre's molded rain gust tend to make matters worse. I'm crossing my fingers for some strong sunlight tomorrow, Kate definitely needs it.

January 22nd

Mix up match up bag. Huh, that doesn't much make sense but it is a catchy opener.

"Mix up match up bag can make your life a drag, first prevail then no sale this mix up match up bag. Mix up match up bag will pull you for a gag, sunshine begins but never wins with mix up match up bag. Mix up match up bag now puts this poem to lag, I shed a tear for now I fear the mix up match up bag."

           

Ta dah! How's that for a silly rhyme? Still catchy. Anyhow it is time to begin my story of today. On this fine Tuesday I resumed my teaching duties with two of the three Racadot children. It was a regular lesson day that went nice and smooth. Louis has made a habit of practicing conversation with me which is always interesting. For a thirteen year old (he just turned into a teenager as of the 9th!) he is doing very well. In fact his mother told me that he has the equivalent of an American A in English. Alright go Louis! Anne does not have the same fortune, at least not in physics or French literature. Her English comprehension is very good and she has patience with me when I am trying to explain a grammar concept in broken French. All ended on a good note with me receiving my usual payment and my usual loud "goodbye!" from Alexis. Everything was in the bag, or so I thought.

The walk home is rather long for the night and I never feel completely secure. Often I speak to my mother on the phone about random (usually controversial) topics with which I have a strong opinion. Tonight I did just that and covered a large array of categories starting somewhere around the fifty capitals of the United States then ending with the Earth's poles switching. Hey I always have something interesting pluming through my mind.

I made it home just fine and said goodbye to my mother before entering the residence hall. Once upstairs I began my dinner preparations and then ate my delicious results. It wasn't until I was innocently surfing the web that I realized something was wrong. I felt my pocket for my payment. Surprise surprise it wasn't there. Damnit. I know that no one nipped it since I was wearing a long coat that concealed my body making it impossible for any thieves to stealthily steal my earnings. This means that by my own device I lost my money. DAMNIT!

Now I was pretty pissed off about the whole situation (won't lie) and tried searching every possible nook and cranny in which it could be. No findings were ever made. I then sat myself down and sarcastically said aloud, "well at least I made someone else's night way better." 

Oddly enough that did the trick in boosting my mood. I imagined that some regular sap had just been walking down a street when they suddenly saw my lost money. Being an average shmuck they then quickly pocketed it and relished in their victory. Bad luck for one causes good luck for another. Ah well, twenty bucks (the approximate US equivalent) is not the end of the world. It's annoying but it did teach me that rather than quickly stuffing some bills in my back pocket I should take the time to put them away in my wallet. Lesson learned and not soon forgotten (let's all hope).

January 21st

This was one long day but completely necessary. I didn't sleep last night, not a wink. Why would I do that to myself audience, madness MADNESS!! Well the reasoning behind it all was to "fix" a nocturnal issue that I've been having with France. I am naturally a night person thus why late hours come easily to me. However, the rest of the world does not function on night hours they all work on "day hours". Bleh, daylight. I have somewhat tried to wind my internal clock forward seven hours over the past two weeks to no permanent avail. I see the clock strike three AM far too often these nights, or is it days? Gah I don't know anymore! So, in order to solve the problem I decided to be cruel to my body (again) and perform an all-nighter in order to properly set my sleep schedule. It was not too bad. In fact I accomplished several important tasks that had been accumulating on my to-do list.

The laundry was washed and hung to dry without issue; I highly recommend doing dorm loads at four in the morning, no waiting queues! I sorted through a giant pile of papers that was dominating my floor space as well as reorganized my files. I even had time to make a cute little rubric for my class schedule. A diverse amount of dry dreary duties were now done. Rather unlike me I must say, but I am loving the cleared floor space and enhanced choice selection of clothing.

Besides staying up all night and performing chores, I had a normal Monday. The oddity was taking Jaimie (at the hissable evil 9 am) to the SRI or international office. I wasn't enthusiastic about the early morning but I had promised her that I would the night before. Mission was completed without any bumps in the road whatsoever. Sweet. I then returned home, waited for a few hours, fell asleep for two hours, and then went to class. French Civilization lives once more! Oh Martel, it was good to see you again. The lecture was an exact repeat from the beginning of first semester, but many of the student faces were different. I still expect Paula to be sitting next to me wearing her frames and texting with her iPhone on the desk. Sigh, this separation is going to be hard. Class was fine, again it was a repeat, but lagged near the middle. Ah well, such is going to happen with a class that doesn't change semester to semester. 

Afterwards was spent sitting on my butt in my dorm chair editing paragraphs and reading random articles on McCarthyism. Live a curious life audience, hasn't killed me. Should probably have ended that with yet...YET!

January 20th

It's just one of those Sunday Done-days otherwise known as not much going on. The most I did today was massage and crack Kate's back; these St. Nicolas mattresses aren't helping either. Really today I just thought about this upcoming week, the start of classes. No matter where I am, in the States or in France, I always become nervous on first days. There's just too much new! My first full day of high school was an ultimate day of terror. Not only did I become lost more than once, but I was trying to reach my classes through a sea of students. Le Havre is not even close to level of panic of South (my high school), but is still intimidating. I worry that I'll make a fool of myself; I often slip up somehow, which is where this whole anxiety of "new" stems from. Oh well, the new doesn't really start until Wednesday. See I only have one class tomorrow, French Civilization with Martel. I'm not scared about that, it will be the same class just new students. No my fear is anticipating Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, especially Thursday morning; Art history at 8:30 am followed by History of Religions at 11:00 am. The course times alone are less that wonderful but I most likely will be the only foreign student in those classes. Fingers crossed that I'm not, though only time will tell. Alright enough, the pitter patter is over. I apologize audience, sometimes you just have a day of thoughts. Seeing as I gave you a grey post I'll leave you with a comical image of a comic. Evens out right?

Lio by Mark Tatulli

January 19th

Like so many days of my life this one was a nice roller coaster. Fortunately it was a kiddie ride and not the Cedar Point Dragster. Due to a typo I stayed up all night reading an online fantasy comic called Looking for Group. Damn you Jonathan for suggesting it and damn me for misspelling Paula as Paul! As you know or have figured out audience I have a very addictive personality especially when it comes to stories. This one is wonderful and the character Richard is now my favorite dark mage of all time. Thus the night was spent reading page after page with a few pauses for laughter. I did sleep for about five hours and napped awhile as well before Kate (like my dear mother) entered my room to pry me from my bed. Kate was successful (just like my mom) and after thirty to forty minutes of grooming I was ready to seize the afternoon.

Kate and I took Jaimie on a small tour of Le Havre which included the public library, the mall, and les docks. Pretty solid day with lots of walking (just like in the Hobbit). All in all it was a good day, just keep that in mind audience. There were of course some bumps along the road (just like in the Hobbit). Onward to adventure!

Bump number one was when Jaimie lost the bracelet she had been wearing while we were at the mall. Apparently it was a rainbow pride bracelet and had some sentimental value. She does have an identical one back in the States, but it still is a craptastic situation. Fear not audience the crappiness continued right after, literally right after.

            

Welcome to the table bump number two! The three of us were eating at a restaurant that Kate and I often enjoy inside the mall. The food was its usual goodness and it soon dawned the time to pay. I didn't have a lot of cash on hand so I figured that I would use my LCL (French Bank) card to pay for the whole meal and Kate and Jaimie could pay me their shares in cash. Good plan, didn't work  (unlike in the Hobbit). The funtasticness of France's technology never seems to end. When I attempted to pay for the meal, all three of my bank cards did not go through, all three! Such gracious plights love to reserve themselves for me and Biblo, though he only had to deal with goblins and some giant spiders not social awkwardness in a restaurant. Kate gave me the signature "adult" look even though there wasn't much I could do in the situation; if the machine doesn't want to work it won't work. She then stepped in to use her card, rejected! Misery loves company cause no one wants to go down alone.. The man said that it was the machine (good job Sherlock) and not our faults. He suggested using the cash machine at the Monoprix when Jaimie came to the rescue. She has a fifty euro bill that easily covered the expenses and freed us of our constant "declined" receipts.

            

We left, in more or less so-so moods, and made our way to Les Docks. Jaimie and I discussed the charming and nerdy topics of Lord of the Rings as well as The Hobbit. Poor Kate, it is very easy to become lost in a conversation and be unaware of the exclusion of other party members. Happens to all of us, yet I have a feeling Kate and Jaimie have common grounds as well, just not Tolkien themed ones. Moving on, after I hit the ATM at Les Docks we did some much needed housing goods shopping, by “we” I mean Jaimie of course. She nabbed pillows, towels, soap, and more random living supplies. I was there to grab a couple candles, which I almost forgot to buy, and ended up with an armful of unexpected groceries. I simply cannot help myself when it comes to shopping; curse you materialistic society! 

Once home everything began to really wind down to a nice mellow level. At least for me it’s mellow, most likely the others feel the same. Time for a bottle of Cola and some candlelight whilst I read up on html coding. Oh it's going to be a wild Saturday night.

January 18th

Hello and welcome (maybe) to the first post on my shiny new blog for my second semester in France. There are a few white elephants we need to dismiss before we actually begin this post, so just skip ahead if you are too bothered to take the time to read them.

First off, this is a different blog meaning that it will be run in another manner. You will find similar pages, such as the Friends of France, making an appearance here but you will also discover some unusual ones along the way as well audience. I figured that I should put some more effort into my blog besides my day by day posts which brings me to the second elephant, the widgets. These would be my bells and whistles of my blog otherwise known as the magic eight ball, the weather forecast, and my looping music player. The eight ball is something silly for those of you who like me enjoy having something else predict your future without any logical means. The forecast is the most practical widget for it gives you an inside to the time and place in which I'm staying. The music player known as "looper" is my favorite widget. Looper is a term that refers to someone who enjoys looping one song over and over again into oblivion. I am one of those people (I can't help opening up the Kvatch gate) and it drives everybody, mostly Kate, insane. Well, this music player is very simple and is only able to play one song rather than a playlist. Simple is better for a blog in my opinion because it often makes it easier for browsers to load. Looper will be playing whichever song is dominating my head at the moment meaning that it will change from time to time; the frequency changes but usually is around two weeks to a month and half. Actually my record is my entire summer vacation which spans over three months. I have thought of you audience and thus given you the choice whether or not to activate the music rather than it playing automatically. You could thank me but I'll just assume that you sorta did. Third and final white elephant is the poll. This is a widget provided by blogger and something that I enjoy. The poll will be weekly, this first one is a bit longer, and will be asking a random question that pops into my head. Have fun answering it and each Sunday that I'm in town I will post the poll results on the blog as well as my own answer. There we go now we can finally start this first post!

Audience today was pretty sweet. It started off sweet which made the rest of it better and the pretty sweet came into the end. On this simple Friday Le Havre experienced its first full snow of the year. This could possibly be its only snow of the year, but regardless it happened. I love Chicago winters. To those of you not familiar with the climate of Chicago (possibly a good chunk of you audience) it often snows during our winters but it is always rigidly cold. Come January and February our days are littered with the average temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius or 258.15 Kelvin) along with nights of -3 degrees Fahrenheit (-19.4 degrees Celsius or 253.75 Kelvin). That's freakin' cold. Winter is also our longest season and can, usually does, last into April. Spring is only about a month long before the summer heat wave hits at the end of May. I, Marebear love winter in its entirety. Some part of me does this to rebel against the norm, but most of me loves winter for being winter. So when it snows in Le Havre a city which rarely sees this silent falling beauty, I become happy. Its an uncanny happy since there is a lot of giddiness stuffed into it. Remember audience, everyone has something odd that makes them tick full of smiles. The snow gave me a joyful start to the day, as always the rest just followed.

If you all remember my friend Paula was only here for the first semester. She is now back in Nebraska but we still keep in touch. Her sorority duties keep her busy and the time difference does interfere, however we are still involved in each other's lives digitally. Well since it is a new semester that means new students are arriving, foreign students to be precise. Jaimie is such a student. She hails from Nebraska, originally from the East Coast, and arrived in Le Havre today. She actually arrived in the late afternoon later than planned. This is due to that rascal snow (weather will be weather) that scared everyone in Normandy including the trains not built for snow into chaos. Poor Jaimie spent an extra hour and forty five minutes on her train because of climate delays. Kate and I were still there to welcome her to Le Havre which took some of the pressure off. Michael (Mama Duck) was there as well the second time in order to see that Jaimie made it to St. Nicolas residence hall in one piece. She did, don't worry, and is now relaxing in her room after Kate and I (mostly me) chewed the fat relentlessly. Ollie even made an appearance which Jaimie enjoyed. Jaimie seems to be a nice girl with both feet on the ground. She isn't Paula and no one can replace your friends, but I think that Kate, Jaimie, and I will go along nicely. Fingers crossed audience.

Oh yeah, P.S. I have internet in the dorm now!