goodness, we're not in south france anymore toto, i mean tiff.

[just don't know what to do with myself. don't know just what to do with myself. i'm so used to dooelkoas...best friend's wedding, i miss you.]

did you know that pandora only works in america?

what. the. crap.

guess i'll just have to put up with my itunes. blechhhh.

last friday....sucked. we had to wake up super early to travel back to paris on the train, and if you don't know yet, i hate traveling. or at least i hate transportation. somebody invent teleportation and i'll marry you, alright? cool beans.

anyways, so we got back in paris a couple hours later and we were all super jittery because we were gonna be meeting our host families. me and tiff still didn't really know much about ours because the paper describing them was all in french and ummm, we speak english. so eventually we had lauren translate it for us.

the dets: we only have a host mom [she's divorced?] and she's got a couple kids, but they're all grown-up. but her 19-year-old son lives with her [score] and goes to the same college as us [some days of the week]. she lives over by trocadero [which is basically eiffel tower status, people. get excited. i know i was!] in a charming, but quiet area. overall, very good area. me and tiff were super psyched.

we were told that we were supposed to bring her a present, so we took off immediately after we dropped off our bags at our director's apartment and had lunch at mcdonalds [please don't judge, i was insanely craving a hamburger and didn't feel like searching the paris streets for american food. it'll never happen again. just one of those one night stands. hit it and quit it, okay?] for a good present for her. we headed over to olivier & co, which is known for olive oils and pasta sauces and things like that. kinda like williams sonoma. they've got em' in america apparently. real original, i know. but she likes to cook, so whatever. we got her this little olive oil kit thing and then got her some flowers as well and were good to go. 

we took a taxi there [funnn], still not really knowing what to expect, but hoping for the best, of course. let's just say it was a little overwhelming....actually very overwhelming. our host mom's name is madame percin. right away, she starts going off in french about how we were supposed to use the code for the door or something. then invites us in and asks us to sit down for some tea and juice. right away, i could tell that she was a messy person, on account of the fact that her house was a mess. it really reminded me of my grandma biasi's [crazy old italian grandma] house, with stuff everywhere.

exhibit a:

[i don't know if you can tell, but that room back there is literally trashed. maybe that's where they have all their drunken parties...]

[a little cluttered, but pretty. my favorite are the walls and the ceiling with that molding. crown molding? something like that.]

kitchen:

[not quite "hoarders" material, but still makes me cringe a little when i walk in there. yes, that bag in the back right-hand corner is the "garbage". yes, where that tall water bottle is is where the stove used to be before it broke. and that's also her laundry hanging in there too. because there's so much room in here, why don't we do laundry as well? let's play some tennis in there while we're at it. i'm a little surprised the fridge isn't the place where she stores her pots and pans and writes her notes to herself like grandma b..]

the dining room:

hallway to my room:

[oh, and if you get a little tired on the way to bed, never fear. you can just take a quick nap on this random daybed. we gotcha covered.]

my bathroom [no WB--toilette included]:

[for some reason, this bathtub/shower concept is still funny to me. i really don't know why. i just laugh every time i get in the "shower".]

bedroom:

[wood floors are gorgeous, but they creak like no other, which makes for a fun midnight pee run.]

after that, we went out with madame and she showed us around the neighborhood, showing us where some good local restaurants and stores were. we went to the boucherie and got some chicken and then to the boulangerie and got some bread and a pear/peach tart. here in france, they have different stores that you get your meat at or your bread and pastries [my kind of store] at. then we went back home and ate. i forgot to take a picture of the chicken, but i got a picture of the only thing that matters to me.

after dinner though [and all throughout if we're gonna be honest here], madame talked on and on and onnnn in french about politics and her children and all this crap that me and tiff had no idea of. i think she forgot we can't speak french? we literally just sat there and nodded the whole time, saying "oui" every couple minutes. it definitely was a culture shock. i really felt pretty lost and depressed after it was all over. i think it was because we had been on vacation and it didn't really feel real, but it had started to sink in that not only is france a different country, but a different culture as well. and it's going to be a little hard to adjust-it always is. but that's why i signed up for this. i want to struggle, want to be put in a situation that's so strange and unfamiliar so that i have no choice but to find my own ground to stand on. i know this experience is going to be really good for me. i can already feel it changing me.

and i love it.