Sorry that it's been so long since my last post--life has a way of getting in the way of things, doesn't it? So, at this point, I have a full two weeks of classes under my belt and am getting a little more used to it all. My Francophone lit class is going well, although we're absolutely flying through our first novel, called L'Enfant Noir, and the man who teaches the lecture class is pretty tough to follow most of the time, although at least he's not using the microphone anymore. The mosaics class is a little less overwhelming, although he still goes really fast--he'll she a slide just long enough to write down the place, country and date, and then he's onto the next. Whew. The grammar class, while a subject that manages to both be dull but impossible to fully comprehend, is going well because the prof is pretty wonderful--the feistiest 60-year old woman I've ever met. And, phonetics is still putting me to sleep, and I still can't really tell the different between [y] and [u]. Damn you, French.

Last weekend was pretty full of adventures. On Sunday I went out with the hiking club. We met at 10:00 (it was a big group, a bit over 40) and then all piled into cars to head off to... wherever it was that we went, I honestly have no idea. I turns out that my car was full of four other 'oldies' which was both nice because they were telling me about everything, but also intimidating because they were all good friends. Also, fast-spoken French still goes totally over my head. Holy crap. So, after a. getting a bit lost and b. losing one of the cars in the convoy, we made it to the mountain, which we proceeded to climb... Obviously. Although everyone was referring to it as a "randonette" (une randonée is a hike, so randonette is a cute little baby hike), I was more or less ready to fall over when we got to the top. We had lunch and hung out for a bit (I chatted for a while with a Mexican guy (yes! Someone from my continent!) which was fun, and an exercise in really close listening). Also, peeing in the bushes = not so much fun, especially when said bushes all have prickers. I still have scratches all over my legs. So, that was interesting, at any rate. Unfortunately, the group was a little older (as in, not in college) than I had been hoping, but I'll definitely go back at least once and see how it goes.

Sunday night was the beginning of Yom Kippur, so (after a good deal of persuasion by my dear sister) I hunted down a synagogue to go to. So, I finally get there, and go up to the door and asked the man standing there if that was the way in. He said yes, and then proceeded to ask me a few questions about who I was (the last on which being "tu est juive?" Um... Nah, not Jewish, I just felt like crashing services. Seriously?) Of course, to make this more interesting, he had a really bad stutter, so... yeah. It was hilarious in a slightly awful sort of way. So, I eventually got inside, and mae my way upstairs to to woman's section. Oh my. So, the women don't get one side of the synagogue, they get stuck on the balcony, so unless you're in the front row, you have no idea what's going on. So weird. So, I stayed for about an hour and a half, 'course I didn't understand one bit of what was going on. At the end, though, there was this little old lady who saw that I was alone and must've figured out from my accent that I was American, and she said something to the effect of "have a good holiday, and I wish you a sweet and healthy new year" and kissed me, which was pretty much the cutest thing ever. It actually made me really happy :) I love nice people.

Monday's adventure was finding the Irish dancing studio which I had found out about at the foire des associations and had been really looking forward to taking a class at. So, I left an hour before class, which I thought would be enough time to get there. Hah. So, I took the tram to the end of the line, which is the suburbs of Montpellier, and proceeded to walk the three wrong ways (including along a bloody highway, which was sketchy as hell) before finding the right way. Turns out that the studio isn't even in Montpellier, but Juvignac, the next town over. Yikes. So, I eventually got there, half an hour late, and took the second half of class which was the tap part. It was fun, but not amazing. I dunno, if I'll go back or not. Luckily a woman offered to drive me back to the tram stop, because it would have been really, really, scary to have to walk all the way back. Yikes. Something about doing other types of dancing, though, always makes me want to go back to ballet, and I really need to go find this "studio Skouratoff" that I've been hearing about.

The last adventure I can think of included neither getting lost, French, nor new people, but a dead chicken. So, I found this great recipe for "poulet jardinier" in my microwave cookbook, and it called for a chicken, so goshdarnit, that's what I got. It was ridiculously cheap, too, only 4 euro. Cool. So, I cut up all my veggies, then the recipe says to add the chicken and I say... Oh crap. What do I do with it? So, I spent about half an hour wrestling with the bloody (literally--there were organs in it, too. Mmm-mm.) thing and stabbing it with a knife, and trying not to be too squeamish about cracking bones with my bare hands. Ick. Well, eventually I got 2 legs, 2 breasts, and 2 wings, so I figured that that was good enough. Emily: 1 Chicken: 0 So, anyways, the dish came out great, and it'll last for a while. Awesome. I love cooking full meals, so I can cook one thing and just add bread and be done with it. Also--I've decided that this whole "study abroad" thing is really just housewife training in disguise. Seriously. I'm ironing, planning meals, cooking, cleaning my bathroom every week, washing dishes... etc. It's sort of ridiculous how much work it takes, though, to take care of just you and your place. I can't imagine taking care of kids. Guess that's what the husband is for?

Let's see, anything else? Last night was Sophie's surprise birthday party, which was a lot of fun. We managed to totally surprise her! Remind me to never try and plan one, though, just thinking about it made my head hurt. We ended the night at Australia which was really fun. Also, I broke out my black leather boots for the first time in France which was awesome. Tomorrow I'm going hiking again, and the rest of the weekend will probably be spent cozying up with my homework. Well, that's what I'm hoping will happen, I'm not sure what the reality will be. Also, my parents are coming to visit in just over a week, which is pretty crazy. It was always this distant visit, and now it's almost here! Wow. I totally have plans to have them take me out to all the restaurants I've been eyeing for the last 6 weeks... Very sneaky.

Alright, I think that's all for now. Hope everyone's well!