How practical are French showers, really?

First of all, why is nothing open on Sundays? Secondly, why do I still have no internet?

I moved into my new apartment finally!! Big plus there. Except it’s not finished yet because they guy who’s doing it over (we don’t actually know his name, but we’ll call him Jean-Philippe) only works from 9-12. … He said our closets would be done on Monday, and our Internet would be set up in 1-2 weeks. Is he joking? Lisa and I are both glued to our Internet, thus this came as a bit of a shock to us. Luckily we still have 30 Rock on my external hard drive to keep us occupied. The salon (living room) is huge, and we have a fabulous balcony. We were pleasantly surprised with things we had no idea came with the apartment, such as a plethora of kitchenware, a washing machine, and desk lamps. Jean-Philippe certainly covered all the bases, (that’s what she said, heyo), so we definitely lucked out. I also somehow was on the same wavelength as Jean-Philippe, because the color scheme I chose for my bedding matches his color scheme for the entire apartment: black and white with red accents. PERF. All in all, it’s a wonderful apartment that will be even more amazing when finished. My only complaint is the shower. It is one where you have to hold the nozzle, and there’s nowhere to hang it up on the wall. In my first shower this morning I was awkwardly trying to do everything one-handed, and in my attempt to rest the nozzle down, I sprayed water all over the bathroom. I hate not being able to just stand in the shower for unnecessary long periods of time wasting every last drop of hot water. We also get to meet our French roommate soon! From stalking her stuff, it looks like she’s an art student!! Cooooool.

I went to my first French party!! A fellow assistant’s French boyfriend was going to a Hollywood themed party that a friend and I thought would be a great idea. Though we live in a French-speaking country, we rarely speak French. I spend all my time with English-speaking creatures, most of whom don’t feel ready/comfortable/whatevs to speak French conversationally. Myself included. We all really want to get there, and we are able to get by in stores, mild small talk, but at least for me, it still always comes with a blank stare and a few “quoi’s?” from both parties. At this party, it was the first time I truly felt “wtf am I doing here.” I could not keep up with conversation for the life of me. I could understand most of what was being said, but I just haven’t had the practice and opportunities for French conversation in all the years of studying the language. I find it so unfortunate how my education was centered on reading and writing. I know I can’t expect myself to speak French fluently after the first time trying, but this experience inspired me even more to go out there and find ways to engage myself in French conversation. I need to take advantage of the fact that this is the best possible opportunity I have to work on my French, and I want to make sure that happens!

On Saturday I ventured to Nîmes. Nîmes is a smaller city known for its Roman Arena, a coliseum look-a-like where bullfighting still takes place. There was a plan to go see an actual bullfight, but I was like helll no. I brought a book just in case, but fortunately there wasn’t one happening that day. As much as I want to immerse myself into French culture, I get no satisfaction watching a helpless animal get massacred for entertainment. Overall the city was really cute; there just wasn’t a whole lot to do. The girls ended up going shopping for a bit and we left the men to fend for themselves – they wandered into FNAC (ha, pronounced Funack) to watch a rugby game. Major plus of the day: when everyone wanted a snack/pastry break, I found a dessert I could eat! Meringue! Pure sugar and egg whites. But mostly pure sugar. It was like a giant blob of sugar.