An American in... Bordeaux

Hello everyone!

First of all, France is awesome. I honestly can't believe I am actually here! And I actually seem to forget it a lot of the time, hehe. I just came back from church. It is definitely interesting here, where I don't know what anyone is saying. I just smile and pretend that I know what is going on. :) It has worked very successfully so far :). So, I got here at night on Tuesday ( I traveled for almost two days straight... awful) so I didn't really see that much. The next day, cute Amelia gave me a real french breakfast. I had this hot cocoa type stuff, and a baguette. It is so weird the difference in food quality here. Their butter doesn't have whatever ours has, so if you leave it out to soften, it will go bad. Weird. Also, the milk (which is really half-and-half; half cream, half milk) tastes TOTALLY different. They just buy these little... box things that come in big packs of like....10. I think they are probably a quart each.. anyway, they just leave them out! They just sit them on the floor until the milk in the fridge is gone, and then they will replace it. Also, at the store, they just leave eggs out. Meaning.... they don't keep them in the fridge. Don't they go bad?? Anyway... weird. But the food is really good. I haven't actually had a lot of food since I've been here. But the food I have had has been good.

Ok, so this was awesome. So, I went to institute for the first time on Thursday. Also, another interesting fact, me and Amelia seem to be the only girls, ever. No, not really. Just in the Single Adults group.... not a good deal. No, just kidding. I actually really like all of the guys here. They don't make things awkward at all. I feel like we are totally friends. It is awesome. Anyway... back to the story. So, institute was very short. We just had a short lesson. Actually it wasn't even institute. It was Institute family home evening. So afterwards, the boys and Amelia played basketball ( I really would have played/embarrassed myself but my feet had blisters covering them from walking way too much the day before.... dumb). And then after that, we were all hungry. Well it turns out that the institute building had "food" in it. Haha, well, we got creative (by "we" I mean the others) and ended up having canned "hericot verts" (green beans) with a sort of... sauce on it. I can't actually tell you what it was... I don't know. And, frozen, stale baguette bread with nutella :). So cool. But anyway... not super interesting for you, I'm sure.

Well, I will now attempt to describe France... or Bordeaux. Not everywhere is like here. Alright, so.... It is pretty awesome. ALL of the buildings are old and beautiuful. It is crazy. They definitely try to preserve the old stuff here. Another thing about France.... almost everyone walks or rides bikes. There ARE a lot of cars, but there are a lot of people too. They aso ride the trams. I am getting used to all of the walking. It is actually really nice when I am wearing comfortable shoes. :) I have been having some real feet problems actually. Mostly blisters, but I am getting this really bad pain in my foot from playing the pedal on piano... that stinks. Anyway, shut up Lindsay.... you are ridiculous. Ok, let's see. So, I will tell you of my friends. I like to call them friends. I don't know if they would say the same of me, but we can pretend :). Alright, well my first friend, Guillame (said like GEE-OME) is super cool. He reminds me a lot of Dallin (my cousin) actually. It is weird. I have my own French Dallin over here. Anyway.... he is 27. And there is Corantin (it doesn't sound like it is written. I can't even say it...). Not sure how old he is. I think like... 19. He is funny. I know he knows what I am saying, and I have heard him say a few words in english, but otherwise he refuses to say anything in english to me. It is funny. He is super nice, and he talks to me, but in French.

And he even knows I don't have any idea what he is saying :). Haha, he is great. And I just met Marc the other day. He is cool too. He likes to speak english with me. Which is nice. He still speaks more French though... of course :). And... there are some others that were at Institute, but I can't remember their names....woops. Also, they do the cheek kisses over here all the time. Poor Amelia probably is so embarrassed of me all the time. There are just certain things you do here, to be polite, and I obviously am not used to them. Most of the time I am being rude apparently. I am getting used to most of it though :). The boys are really nice though and they make sure I am ok with the.... "bisous" I think they call them :). The kisses. Also, there are three Sister Missionaries that are awesome. They are all from America, so they talk to me and it's awesome.
I had my audition yesterday morning. I failed. It's ok, though. There were only 4 spots, so I was obviously not going to be in one of them :). But there are other music schools that I am going to look into tomorrow. There are a ton of them. Also, Amelia is going to mostly be going to a different music school anyway, so... yeah, I'm not THAT bummed. Plus, if I was supposed to get in, I would have. At this point I am just praying to know what it is I am supposed to be doing here. I feel like this is totally where I am supposed to be right now, but now that this conservaotry thing fell through, I need to figure things out again :). Oh well. Party, party. Well, I suppose I shouldn't take up your whole life. I can't possibly tell you EVERYTHING, so I hope what I have said will suffice. :)