Another reason I haven't posted in a while is that I am very busy all the time. For real. I wake up at 6:40, it takes an 45 minutes to an hour to get to class from my house, I then have class (with a lunch break) until 4:30 in the afternoon, another 40ish minute haul home, a two hour dinner, homework and finally bed. Seriously, I can't find a spare minute in my day for simple tasks. I am definitely not complaining though. Being busy here is kind of awesome.
Like I said, I have been here a little over two weeks. And sometimes I forget to notice what is around me, but every once in a while something takes my breath away. And I stop and think, is this real? Am I really here? I hope that France never stops surprising me!
After class two days ago, three girls and I decided just to wander the streets and head toward this park area. We just sat and talked/people watched. It's funny how close and open we all are after only knowing each other for such a short time. These are the views that took my breath away and jolted me back to the reality of being in France. Can you see anything like this in the US? I don't think so!
Ok, trying to catch up on two weeks worth of not blogging. Well, being in France during the World Cup is pretty cool because the World Cup is huge here, and everyone is obsessed. For the first game, I went with my friends to a public park that had a huge screen of the France game. We were very French and drank our French wine in the road while watching the game. (side note- good wine is only 3 Euros here. Often, it is cheaper to get wine than soda in restaurants.)
Then we went out to bars. It was really fun, except many of us girls got harassed by awful French men. (My friend Margaret who I will probably mention often in this blog actually threatened a man with an umbrella, yelled at him to go away and called the police on him. Sadly, the French police didn't understand what she was saying, and promptly hung up on her.)
On the way home from the bars, I was in a taxi by myself for the last 20 minutes of my ride. I was pretty nervous considering I had no idea what route he was taking me, and I was all alone. I remembered Oprah once said to make your captors remember that you are human and to engage in conversation, so I decided to talk to him the whole way. (He spoke no English, and he was not a captor, but hey, I was nervous and it was late.) He asked me if I was from England, and out of my mouth came, "No, I'm from Canada." Why did I just say that?? I thought that maybe he was a French person who didn't love Americans, so I thought it best to pretend to be Canadian. He then asked me all these questions about Canada, and I had a whole conversation about Canada's weather, university system and towns that I completely made up.
So I also visited a city called Aigues Mortes, which is a medieval city surrounded by walls. It was awesome and very beautiful!
My class and I also took a boat cruise to see the wildlife around Aigues Mortes, in an area called Camargue. There was a kind of cowboy demonstration with bulls. 
Here I am with one of the cowboys. This is Margaret's future husband, according to her. Apparently, according to Margaret, he is the right mix of "French, cowboy, and tough guy with Fedora hat.
This weekend, we have two excursions, so more photos/stories to come!
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