Specialties from Normandie

jeudi, octobre 6

subway and starbucks

so yeah...THERE IS A SUBWAY IN CAEN. words cannot explain how excited i am about this. when i first heard i almost fell out of my chair.
the reason this is good is because subway-like sandwiches are a novelty in france. the sandwich stands here have baguettes with a piece of ham and cheese stuck in the middle. so basically, too much bread, no veggies. so yay. next up, starbucks. (yeah, this is me pretending next up is starbucks- every time we walk past a store being remodled i swear its the perfect spot for a starbucks. but maybe this is a good thing bc id spend all of whats left of my little paycheck there.)

mercredi, octobre 5

Showdown



So hello there. I’ve been back in Caen for two days now after a month long vacation in my favorite hometown- cleveland. man, i had a good time and it was great just seeing people after a year of not coming home. i thought it would be weird to adjust to america after living in frenchie land too long, but i got into the swing of things right away. a bit frustrated to not be able to spend as much time w people as i wanted but eventually i will return and make up for it.


highlights- visiting my awesome cousins in michigan for three days, mom spoiling me and buying me whatever i want (i so don’t feel like im almost 25) a sorta pool party thrown in my honor for the friends and fam, friends who came from far away to visit, CAMI, working at scene again (yes i worked on my vacation) going out to dinner w the mom like, 50 times, and as well dinner for my grandmas 70th b day, lunching with my grandma and erica at aladdins, my favorite lebanise restaurant.
yes, most of this involves eating, i realize that.

so i get in wednesday after no sleep on the plane and am dead tired ready to crash. it is at this moment that i receive tons of great news- my appartement is falling to shambles, the landlord is a money hungry jerk who wont fix anything, and my rad roommate is moving out bc of it and in with the woman i work for. rock on. needless to say, wasnt expecting to come home to all this.

so friday night we had a showdown with our landlord. there was me, my recently evicted roommate emilie (the one who had decided to leave but the next day was kicked out anyway by the landlord bc he called her vindictive, rude and poorly raised) her parents, this older french dude who’s a friend from dollys so he could be our protector from evil landlord, and my two roomies. needless to say, when mr. B (landlord) showed up and saw this crowd he automatically started getting all rilled up and yelling. the shindig ended with lots of shouting (mostly on his part) an almost fist fight by mr. b and emilies dad. her familly left so there would be no blood and after mr. B-- after freaking out again and threatening to kick us all out-- finally calmed down, we managed to force him to sign a paper giving a due date for all the repairs in the apart. thats all we wanted. geez. we were also hoping to con him into paying our electricity since hes ripping us off, but after all that, we figured it was a no.

so now we have to find a new roommate by next week or else our landlord willfind one for us. gotta be honest, dont think i trust his taste. so we’ve been looking on this roommate site and sorta “choosing” our potential roommate. its cool bc they have a picture posted and so we’ve been writing down all the cute guys. unfortunately, none of the cute guys have been writing us back. we have currently interviewed 2 girls and three guys and are not really excited about any of them. after meeting these guys, i have to be honest in saying that im leaning towards a chick. i just try to picture myself brushing my teeth in my pyjamas next to a male nurse who plays the piano and drums and sometimes subs as a clown, and i just cant do it. (although he was going to bring a piano...) another guy swore he would bring us fresh croissants every morning, and the other has a washing machine and microwave. ahhh, such choices.

what else... i registered for the university yesterday, got my student card. i choose my classes today. im taking some fun classes and some not so fun classes. syntax of the french language (not so fun) 17th century fairy tales, a poetry class, women in modern litterature (including one of the books i read in english this summer!) litterature and art, and, get this, contemporary american cinema. hopefully i wont get asked lots of questions. as well i am working still at dollys, the english coffee and tea salon, and am giving some private tutoring sessions.