One Week Left OMG!

C'est bizzarre!! I can't believe I'll be on my way home this time next week (and hopefully quickly going through Customs and security....). Besides all the excitement going on in Alex Band Land, not much else is happening besides exams and stuff.

Last Tuesday, one of the other Americans and I had our 20 minute presentation. It went surprisingly well. And I think we actually made it to the 20 minute mark!! Woo! The teacher didn't have anything to say about the content, which is good. That means we understood what we read and didn't say anything wrong! She really just told us that we need to not be so fidgety while presenting and stuff. But it was all constructive feedback. I could tell she was doing this more to help us improve in the future, and not so much to give us the grade.

Last Tuesday also marked a very happy day for Kelly. THE LAST DAY OF CUFLE!!!!!!!!! Woooooo!! Needless to say, I was VERY happy walking out of that classroom at 7:30. Very very very very very happy.

Wednesday, I had my Histoire des Litteratures exam. It's the medieval French lit class. That exam was SO easy!! We were given 4 questions and had to answer 3. I could have done all 4. The teacher also said the minimum for the first 2 questions was at least 10 sentences. And 20 for the 3rd question. I wrote like....a page for each. So that made me very happy. I'm not trying to brag. I'm just happy because the fact that I could write so much means that I understood the teacher and the class and yay!!!! Happy dance!!

Thursday I had my Histoire de l'Art exam. I wasn't worried about writing the critique of a painting. I was more worried about the part where we would have to answer questions about the different movements and painters. Not that I don't know the material. It just sometimes gets jumbled in my brain because there's SO much info!! But the exam was way easy. WAY easy. I could have done better on the critique (of Edouard Manet's Olympia) but whatever. I was actually really sick all last week and am just now recovering. I had a TERRIBLE cough. Last weekend I pretty much just laid in bed all day and night. I was afraid to buy cough medecine because I'm allergic to a certain brand back home. I've already had 2 allergic reactions to meds this year......I don't want another one! But I was also scared of getting bronchitis or pneumonia just in time for that 9 hour flight home! Luckily, my cough is almost gone as of today! Woooo!

Saturday (YES! SATURDAY!!) was my CUFLE final. WTF?! Now seriously people. Who is the dumbass who scheduled that?! And at NINE in the MORNING no less!! I bet it was my teacher. I bet. He would stoop to that level! But all complaining about that ungodly day/hour for a test, the exam was actually quite easy. The only section where I was unsure of anything was the grammar section. Subjonctif. yay. But even that wasn't bad and I'm sure I got a good grade. The listening I knew the answer to every question but one. Woooo! That means I've improved :) Oh yeah! Did I mention that on Tuesday when someone in my CUFLE class asked the teacher what we should study, he told us not to bother. He was like, "If you know the material, you know it. If you don't, you don't." What the heck?? So yeah. He didn't even tell us what sort of things might be on the exam like most teachers would. Loser.

On Friday I did a wee bit of Christmas shopping :) I also shopped a bit for myself. I went to the bookstore and bought 2 books for the flight home. One is Les Jumelles de Highgate. It's the French translation of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. I've been wanting to read it since I first saw a great review of it a few months back at The Book Lady's Blog. Now mind you, Mommy also wants to read it and told me months ago that she was going to buy a copy for the house. But seriously. Sounds like a great and entertaining story for a 9 hour plane ride!! Plus, I figure I can read it in French first, and then reread it in English to see how well I comprehended everything the first time! I also bought a book called Je suis le dernier Juif. It's a real journal of a Polish man who was sent to Treblinka during the Second World War. Oh yeah-for all you non-French speakers, the translation in English would be I Am the Last Jew. It looks REALLY good. The back says that this man is one of only 57 people who survived Treblinka and lived to tell about it. As far as I know, it hasn't been translated into English yet. I was trying to add it to my "to read" list at librarything.com, and amazon.com couldn't find it. Maybe soon?? So I have my light reading and my heavy depressing reading for the trip home!

OMG MAJOR news!!!!!!!!!! Sarah and I got lunch today (it's a Sunday, and we always get lunch together on Sundays). Now I'm sure you've all heard me going on and on about how the stores (especially that grocery store!) are all closed on Sundays. WELL! The grocery store (AND MANY OTHERS!!) were open today!!!!! Special holiday hours since Christmas is coming!! We purposely made a point to walk through the grocery store. Just because we could! And it felt GREAT!! Seriously. You have no idea how great Sunday shopping is until you've been without it!

Oh yeah, Sarah's also jealous because we have Wegman's in Buffalo ;)

Yesterday was my last Saturday with the sweet French lady :'( I was quite sad. But I'm meeting her on Friday for lunch, so I will see her again before I leave!

I had to book a hotel for this coming Friday. I need to be out of my room (and the room as to be clean and completely empty!) by 9 in the MORNING!! WHAT?! This is effing stupid. Like, what if I didn't have the money for a hotel room?? I'd be homeless!! I will stop ranting though because I've decided to live it up in luxury for my last night in La Rochelle. I booked a room at this hotel. It's like right near the uni and right near the train station. So I'm all set! And it's also right near the harbor :) The other gal from Buffalo and I bought our train tickets the other day. On Saturday around 2ish, we are taking a train to Poitiers. And then from Poitiers to Charles de Gaulle Airport. How'd we do it, you ask?? Well. There's a trick. You can't get tickets directly from La Rochelle to CDG, so if you ask for one, they will say you can't get one. BUT if you ask to go to Poitiers, and from Poitiers to the airport, no problemo!! From the airport, we will take a taxi to a hotel nearby and share a room for the night. Then we will take another taxi back to the airport in the morning. Yeah. We decided to be really easy on ourselves. We did NOT want to have to lug out heavy suitcases (2 for each of us, plus 2 bags for carry-on) through the Montparnasse train station, then wait for the airport bus, then pay the airport bus fee, then put our luggage in the luggage compartment, then sit on the bus for 50 minutes, then find the right terminal, while lugging our huge heavy suitcases. So we took the easy route :) I'm glad we are too because I was NOT looking forward to that voyage to CDG!!

To those of you who love Christmas music, Alex Band just released his own version of "Silent Night". It is beautiful. He changed the lyrics so they are not religious, and his voice goes SO deep and is just sooooo gorgeous! You can download it for 99 cents at itunes, or for 89 cents at Amazon. If you do, please make sure to rate the song and leave a review!

I am going to try to write another blog towards the end of the week before coming home. So be on the lookout for that! And I'm also going to post another blog after returning, talking all about the airport drama, the flights, and the welcoming in Buffalo!

I love you all and I can't wait to hug you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PS-prayers go out to Gramma because she's in hospital. (Marsha! Do you realize that since you brought it to my attention that in UK they don't say "the" hospital, I've been leaving out the "the"?!)

*mwahs* and *hugs* to you all!!!!!
kk