Hello all! Well, I've been up to quite a bit since my last check-in. Now, of course, I just need to try and remember some of it...

I had a really busy week, last week, with a phonetics test on Tuesday (amazingly, I think I'm getting worse at this subject, which is quite impressive), a new art history professor and topic (it's all about the end-19th-century Symbolist Movement in painting, which is actually kinda cool, and coincides with the era in which Byron and Shelley were writing. It's very dark, wonderful stuff), and yet another test in grammar which was really tough. So... Yeah, it was a busy week. And this one is a whole lot busier, as I have two papers due next week. Ironically, they're for the same class, one is 3 pages (the French students need to write 4, haha!) and the other is 7. But here's the weird part--the longer one isn't graded, while the other is, but we still need to do it. Does this make sense to anyone? Oh, the French university system... *shakes head*

So, as exciting as my academic adventures might be, other adventures might be more appreciated... Like, my trip to BARCELONA this past weekend! I headed out with Essi, Muoyo and Ally on Friday afternoon, hopped on a bus and 5 (looong) hours later we were in Barcelona! My very first time in Spain, how exciting! We stayed in a little hostel "El Residencia Erasmus" which was actually great, and really cheap. It felt very much like a slumber party, as we were all in one room. We had an early night on Friday, and then spent all of Saturday walking around, seeing everything--the market, the sea, the old quarter, the cathedral, the Gaudi park etc. Man... I'd gotten used to Montpellier, which has a downtown of about a square mile. According to my poor feet, Barcelona is quite a bit bigger. We did some more walking around on Sunday and then took the bus back and got home in the evening. Quite the whirlwind trip! But, pretty damned awesome :)

Photo shot from the bus, at the French/Spanish border. The photo doesn't really capture it, but the landscape there is Beautiful, really mountainous, and at the moment kinda misty.










We went wandering through a park on Sunday, and found this! I'm not sure what's it's a monument to, but it was beautiful... And riddled with Greek mythology, which always makes me happy.














L'Arc de Trimuph!... Every city's got one. This one was quite spectacular, though.












Shoe-shot!
I kinda like my turquoise chucks, right here...












My lovely travel-companions!!!













Street in Barcelona, in the Gracia quarter, I think.













So, Monday was spent recovering from the busy weekend, actually getting work done, and getting another fiddle lesson. I learned a great new tune called A Cup of Tea. I think we all know why I like it... Also, I've decided that I need a new violin. After mentioning, for the tenth time, something about getting my pinkie down where it should be, Brian tried to demonstrate it on my violin... And realized that it was practically impossible. The problem is that the strings are Really high off the fingerboard, so being able to push down hard enough to get a good note with my weakest finger... Not gonna happen. It's actually really nice to be able to blame my instrument for my problems, for once.

Tuesday was terribly busy (normal classes, plus paper-writing and going to a required play in the evening), and today has been as well. Sealia and I had our cooking class this morning, which was fun--unfortunately I don't have any photos to put up at the moment. And... tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I'll admit to being very sad to not be home :( It's only the second time I haven't been with my family for the holiday. We will be celebrating here, though, which should be fun. And now, I have class to go to! Tah!

This is going to be a somewhat happier post than last week's, I believe. So. I had my big presentation in my literature class on Tuesday which went pretty well, although it ended up being Way longer than originally expected. We had been aiming for, oh, you know, 20-25 minutes. How long did it end up being? Nearly an hour, and even when we left the front of the class, we were still talking about the passage. Wow. I think that the main reason for this was that my partner had timed her piece with her speaking at normal speed: not presentation-in-front-of-a-class-full-of-foreigners speed. Ah well. I got to feel like a good little MoHo, though, because we were talking about how there were all these feminist themes etc. and also, we were asked a question to the effect of "does it just seem like a feminist novel because that's how you want to see it?" to which I answered No, in fact it Was a feminist novel, so there. [Take that, French man!] Also managed to make 'em laugh a few times, which felt good. Anyways, thank god that's over. Now I can worry about all that other work I need to be doing... Frak...

Wednesday was a national holiday, in celebration of the Armistice of WW1 (although, of course, it took me half the day to realize that that was the cause, not some bank holiday. I felt rather silly when I found out). Took ballet in the morning, and went out to a wonderful restaurant called La Tomate in the evening. It felt really very French, and had this great atmosphere--very cozy, with a fireplace and everything. I even got to see frog's legs, for the first time. They really don't look all that appetizing. Thursday contained yet another culinary adventure: the veggie gratin to end all veggie gratins... but, of course with half of the ingredients changed around. It ended up being cauliflower, onions, shallots, an apple and some spinach cooked in wine then with cheese and eggs added. Not bad, not bad at all. I think I added a bit too much liquid, though, as it was a bit soupy.

This weekend was really one of the best on record. Like, seriously. I got a fair bit of work done (for once), went to a knitting store that I found a few weeks ago with Sophie and bought materials with which to crochet a hat to match my scarf, spent a good deal of time in cafes hanging out with my lovely friends and working, and had a most epic dinner party on Saturday evening which included: wine, salad, bread, eggplant parmesan, pasta, sauce, chicken, and a cake. My compliments to the incredible chefs!! Friday night was the Irish session at Fitzpatrick's which was a blast. I knew/kept up with maybe 6 or 7 of the songs, which may not seem like much, but it was enough to make me really happy. I even earned myself a free Guinness... Which I promptly gave to Brian. A whole group of the girls came to see me play which was really sweet, too :) Anyways, it was pretty awesome weekend, just what I needed--a balance of productivity, friends, music, sleep and just plain relaxing. I do have a whole ton of work I need to get to, though, and sharpish. I think that's the main thing I hate about this system, that you have no work for the first 2/3 of the semester, and then Everything is crammed into the end. It's kinda terrifying, actually. Hm, maybe I should stop whining and start working? Quelle idée!

So, I would argue that the past week has been one of the more interesting/busy/social/horrid on record, although I'll spare you most of the gory details. So, there have been such adventures as: meeting interesting French men at laundromats, working on my first presentation for a literature class, another cooking class with lemon meringue pie and being able to play with cookie cutters, skipping my first class this semester, a cooking adventure which involved substituting most of the ingredients which still came out well, finally breaking down and doing a bit of shopping, being read to via Skype by my awesome dad and sister, watching American movies dubbed in French, finding Irish fiddle books in the library, making plans to visit Barcelona next weekend, and having really, really awesome friends :)

In a bit more detail... I've had a really social past few days, wow. In fact, I feel like I've barely been home at all which is weird. So, Friday evening was celebration #1 of Ally and Muoyo's birthdays! Happy birthday! So, we all went out to a bar for a few hours, hung about and had cake. Then we went out to Australia (we were actually let in this time, unlike last week when we were unceremoniously turned away for no good reason) and danced until the wee hours which was fun. On Saturday I had quite an adventure... I had run into my friend Magali the day before and she had invited me to go out folk dancing with her and her friends Olivier and Stephen! It was in a little town about an hour out of Montpellier called Sommieres (I think). I was expecting it to be really small, and low-key... Man, was I wrong. It took us about 15 minutes to even get in because there was a line, and then it was this big hall that was absolutely packed to the gills with people. We decided that the word of the night was "chaos." Nothing was taught, so you either knew it or you were out of luck (or, if you're me, you just hunted down a good partner and didn't let him get away), and it was so crowded that it was hard to tell what was going on. There were some dances that were done in pairs, some in pairs in lines, some pairs in circles and some in lines in circles.... Whew. I can now dance a pretty mean valse (waltz at warp speed), scottish (possibly the sexiest dance I've ever done--un, deux, trois, un, deux, trois, un, deux, trois, quatre--and done while practically hugging your partner because there just wasn't enough room to do otherwise. It reminded me of a salsa or something) and a mezurka (nothing like what we learned in ballet class--un, deux, saut!, un, deux, trois--and just super awkward, but rather fun anyways, when you're not stepping on your partner's feet). So, it was fun, but also overwhelming in the fact that at home, folk dancing is where I belong, I know the dances, the people, the music etc. whereas here, I was expecting the same and was rudely surprised. Apparently there are folk dances at UPV on Thursday evenings, though, which I'm really excited about. Also, there was a boy with long blond hair in a skirt who danced really beautifully. I think they're following me...

Today I went to a mini jam-session with my fiddle teacher Brian and his friend Mark. We spend most of the afternoon playing away, with 2 fiddles and... a banjo? Yep, a banjo. They're such funny instruments. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a new tune by ear, which always impresses me as I'm usually horrible at doing that. I think it's actually the fiddle tune from the Titanic. Weird, I know, but a really great song. And now... Time to decompress from the last 7 days and get ready for an intense week.