Song of the Day: Welcome Home

It was really warm today. And rainy. I choose to believe that Montreal was weeping over our departure. Today is our last day in Montreal. We had class and talked about our readings and the Interim as a whole. Then we all went out to Premier Moisson for lunch. I had planned all of my expenses so that I would run out of money today, but then I found $50.00 in my wallet, so guess who bought $70.00 worth of presents today? Then Jill and I went to the Jean-Talon market and I bought flowers for Angela. I came back home using the metro for the last time. It was very sad. I will miss the lady saying "Prochaine Station: Papineau" and things like that. Anyway, I came home and packed.

Breakfast: Yogurt
Lunch: Vegetarian pizza with tomatoes, cheese, and other veggies; cheese cake
Dinner: pasta with veggies, chicken with stuffing, deep-fried rice balls.

Today was our last free day and it was lots of fun. We went to the Notre Dame for Sunday mass, which was really interesting and the choir was really pretty. Then we went to lunch at a cafe on Sainte-Catherine and then to the same creperie from two summers ago: Paris Crepes! Oh my goodness, mine was so yummy and I got to hold it and walk while I ate it. This was the first crepe that I've been able to hold, and I decided that I would open my own creperie and call it "Holdy Crepe!" Then four of us walked up Mont Royal to Lac aux Castors and I sat and plaued MASH with Rebekah while the other two girls skated. It was so nice and sunny and "warm."

Breakfast: Yogurt, cookie, muffin
Lunch: Turkey, Bacon, tomato sandwich, nutella and banana crepe
Dinner Party Time:This was so much fun! The regulars were there and also Emmanuel's new students were there, who have only been studying French for two years, so it was fun to talk to them and feel ok about myself. Actually, to be honest, I rocked that dinner party. I could understand everyone and I joined in all the conversations and made jokes and actually said more than one sentence at a time (!!!). The Food: homemade pizza with homemade prosciutto; wine; tisane; tiramisu, neopolitan pasteries; whiskey.

Song of the Day: "Fireflies" by Owl City

Today we girls met at 11:00 at the Musee des Beaux Arts to see the Waterhouse exhibition. Before that, thought, I went to Premier Moisson for about an hour and read my book while eating a croissant. Absolutely lovely. I really liked the Waterhouse exhibition, although the lighting was a little annoying because the lights would reflect too harshly on the tops of the paintings. It wasn't really my style of painting, but I still really enoyed reading everything and looking at them. Then Rebekah, Harper, Lauren and I went to lunch while the other girls went to Tim Horton's. We went to Cafe Depot and had a yummy lunch. After that, I went on my own to buy some cadeaux for ma famille. I'm at Angela's right now (although I have no idea where she is) and tonight we girls are going out for dessert and coffee at the restaurant at the top of Ville-Marie. Ville-Marie is the tallest building in Montreal and it holds the main offices for the major banks in Montreal. But at the top of the Ville-Marie is a restaurant and a discotheque. Some people might go to the discotheque after dessert, but I really have no desire to.

Song of the Day: "Us" by Regina Spektor

Breakfast: yogurt and croissant
Lunch: baguette with mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, and pesto; creme brulee
Dinner: "macaroni" with zucchini, chicken

Today was the start of our free weekend. Kaylee, Jillian, Lauren, Rebekah, and I took a morning walk around Westmount, which is basically the really rich part of Montreal directly north of Saint-Henri, the really poor part of Montreal. It was really pretty, but it made me sad that directly south was a lot of poverty while these people had huge houses. Then we had lunch at Second Cup, which is a chain of cafes in Quebec. Then we met up with the rest of the girls to go to the Biodome. The Biodome was so cool! It was like the Meijer Gardens and the zoo and I took a lot of pictures. However, right after we got there, my batteries died in my camera, so I had to buy them at the boutique. Guess how much four lithium batteries cost? (hint: in Greand Rapids, it was $9.00.). I had to pay $25.00 for four stupid batteries! But I didn't know what the price was until after she had rung me up and I'm a push-over apparently. Then I went back to Angela's and had dinner, but she made me eat too much.

Breakfast: yogurt, clementine, cookie
Lunch: sandwich with mozzarella, lettuce, and tomato-ey pesto; apple tart
Dinner: tortellini soup, homemade chicken salad on toast

Hi!

Today we had a guest speaker in class today who gave a lecture (in French, or course!) about the history of Christianity in Quebec, which was actually really interesting. Then Kaylee, Rebekah, Harper and I went to Premier Moisson again and had a really yummy lunch. After that, we had a tour of Saint-Henri, which was really cold because we were outside for two hours. Saint-Henri is the sort of place where no one would want to take a tour if a really famous book didn't take place there. Saint-Henri is where Gabrielle Roy's "Bonheur d'Occasion" takes place, which is a really famous book that we read in class. The neighborhood is pretty crummy, and it's on the outskirts of Montreal, but we got to see where all the events in the story took place, which was fun. Then I went home, had dinner with Angela, did my homework, and then had a tisane. Tomorrow starts our free weekend! We're walking around Westmount (the really rich neighborhood), then going to the Biodome.

Breakfast: yogurt, clementine, cappuccino
Lunch: grilled bread with ham, cheese, and veggies; a weird salad of oranges and avacados; a sort of cake with apples, cinnamon, and pecans
Dinner: homemade sausage, penne with sundried tomatoes

Hello!

Today we had class where we talked about the short stories we were reading (which are really good!). Then we girls went to lunch at La Premier Moisson (the same boulangerie) and I had one of the best lunches there. Then we took a tour of le Musee des Beaux Arts and had a "painting lesson," which was fun. After that, I went home and Massimo and Suzie came over for dinner. At 7:30, we went to a concert with a harpsichordist, a violinist, and baritone. It was really amazing. The baritone won a Grammy and an Emmy for playing someone in "Nixon in China" or something like that. I took a program. Then I came home and talked to Julia for a little bit. I realized that want I want to buy for everyone is going to cost, like, $100. Yikes! That's ok. I don't need to buy anything for myself.

Breakfast: yogurt
Lunch: pizza with mozzarella, chream cheese, sour cream, onions, and bacon; a cappuccino (which I should stop buying because I don't like them as much as I think I do); and a realllly amazing piece of cheesecake
Dinner: tortellini soup, chicken, wine, a cookie.

Today was ski day!

I got up at 5:45 because the bus ar Berri-UQAM left at 7:30 in the morning. Jill and I talked about books on the way there and then when we got there, we had lessons. I had an intermediate lesson with Kaylee and Lauren. Our instructor was so nice and he liked practicing his English with us so our lesson was half-French, half-English. I fell three times during the lesson and now my knees hurt really bad because they twisted weird before my skis came off. After our lesson, we had lunch (lunch was the same as dinner, so I'll just list it here instead of my normal way). We had grapes, carrotts, really yummy clementines, half a baguette each with brie, Lindt chocolates, cookies, and Chewy bars. It sounds random, but it was one of my favorite meals so far. Baguettes are the best. But I think I ate too much brie because I have a tummy ache right now.

After lunch, we had a four-hour lift pass. Kaylee, Lauren, Rebekah, and I wanted to take it nice and slow so we stayed together and went mostly down "Jack Rabbit," which was the green circle (easy) one. It was really nice because you could stop at different parts. It was absolutely beautiful because there was a lot of fog, which was cool because you felt like the lift was taking you into nothingness, but the trees looked like an Ansel Adams photograph. Soo pretty. I didn't fall at all during the four hours, and I felt like I could be in control of my speed and I knew how to turn nicely and everything. It was just very pleasant. I was worried that I wasn't going to enjoy myself, but it turned out to be one of my favorite excursions so far!

After four hours, we had dinner and talked in the cafeteria. Then we took a bus home at 6:20. I got to my bus station at 8:22 and read that the bus had just left at 8:21 and the next one wasn't coming until 8:36, so I decided to walk home. I ended up beating the bus home, and I just listened to Linnea's iPod and sang along (because no one was around). Today was a really fun day!

A demain!

Today was kind of a laid-back day. We did a service project this morning at "Partageons l'Espoir" when some of cleaned, some of us organized the clothes drive, and Jill and I made about 700 muffins that they send to lower-income kids at schools. It was fun, but I was really tired all day and I burned my fingers. Then we girls went to the underground at the McGill Station for lunch. Then we split up and I went to Rue Sainte-Catherine and Rue Peel to buy a present for Linnea and then go in a couple of bookstores. I never know what book to get, so I didn't get anything.... Then we met back up at the Atwater station to go grocery shopping because we're going skiing tomorrow and wanted to pack a lunch for everyone instead of buying something expensive at the cafeteria. So we got veggies and fruit and baguettes and meat and cheese. I'm excited, but I'm not excited to get up at 5:45 tomorrow morning. Then I came home and had dinner with Angela and am now going to do some homework.

Breakfast: Special K
Lunch: quiche, couscous with veggies, cole slaw, lemonade
Dinner: soup, veggies, pasta with yummy cheesy filling

We had Angela's two sons, their ladies, my prof (because he lives with Angela's son) and her two neighbors over for dinner tonight. So much fun because I could understand basically everything, but oh my goodness, the food!

dinner in order: gnocci and other pasta with tomato sauce and mushrooms, red wine, seafood salad (shrimp, fish, little circular white things that I thought were noodles but turned out to be calamari), vegetables, some Romanian hard liquor that they made me try, some cream-filled neopolitan pastry, bouche de noel, cappuccino. Holy moley.

Quebec City!

Rue Sainte-Ursule

Hi, everyone!

I hope Linnea had a great birthday!

This weekend we went to Quebec City.

Friday: When we were walking to our auberge (hostel), I was so happy to be back in that city. We were walking through little windy streets with cute buildings and I felt - yes - wistful. We got to our hostel, which was on Rue Ste-Ursule, right next to Rue Saint-Jean, so we were close to cute shops and restaurants and cafes. We went to la Grande Allee for lunch and we had sandwiches in a cafe. Then we saw the Plains of Abraham and explored Old Quebec, including Rue Sous-le-fort. We took a ferry boat across the Saint-Lawrence, which was really cool because it had a ton of ice and looked like it does when you freeze Capri Sun in a cup for an hour - all that slushie stuff. Anyway, it was a nice view even though it was freezing. (I remember the last time we did that it was super hot, so I don't know which one is worse.) Then we went up Rue Saint-Jean and shopped. Before dinner at a creperie, we girls played telephone pictionary in French, which was a lot of fun.

Breakfast: Special K and chocolatine

Lunch: ham, spinach, and brie on focaccia

Dinner: ham and asparagus gratin (w/cream sauce and cheese melted on top!!), salad, alcoholic cider, chocolate & banana & ice cream crepe

Saturday: On SAturday we went to the Museum of Archeology and saw a really interesting mummy exhibition. Then we had the rest of the day free so we stayed for a little on Rue Sous-le-Fort and I bought a little chocolate turtle. We ended up splitting into groups and my group went to Subway for lunch, which I was morally opposed to, but I didn't want to eat lunch alone, and anyway, the other group went to McDonalds. They just didn't want to spend money, but I thought it was a waste of a meal. Then I went with Harper to Rue Saint-Jean and we went to a cafe (I got stracciatella gelato) and we chatted for a while, which was nice. I went back to the hostel to take a quick nap because I hadn't slept well the night before, but I loked myself out of my room when I went to brush my teeth so I had to take a nap in Jill's bed. After that, we girls hung out and talked about what we had done today. Then we went to dinner, which was really yummy and ended up being 2 1/2 hours long.

Breakfast: toast, cereal, tisane

Lunch: turkey, lettuce, tomato, cheese sub

Dinner: parmesan fondue (which was just a melty cube of parmesan with crusties on the outside, salad, quiche, chocolate cake, milk, currant champagne.

Sunday: We got up, had breakfast, and went to the bus station and came home. I need to do laundry and especially wash my new stupid purse because the red dye is bleeding all over Linnea's coat, which I need to wash when I get back home (Sorry, Linnea!). I'm really regretting that stupid purse. Anyway, I can't wait to wash my clothes and especially eat because I didn't have any lunch other than a chocolatine at 11:00am.

I had a lot of fun in Quebec City, but I'm really glad to be back in Montreal. I feel like there are more things to do here, and I sort of felt this time that Quebec City is a tourist trap (though a lovely tourist trap) and that, in the winter, you can't really stay tere for longer than a couple of days without doing much of the same. So I felt like we stayed just the right about of time. I love Montreal. I love that you can use the metro and that there are so many different parts of the city to explore. And I love that there are real stores instead of just souvenir shops or really expensive shops. Yes, I am glad to be back, but I was actually really homesick (for Grand Rapids) this weekend. I'm really starting to miss everyone, so I wish I could just bring you all here because I'm not sick of Montreal yet.

Anyway, I'm going to go see if Angela wants any help making dinner.

Ciao! (that's what they say for "c'ya!")

La Maison St-Gabriel

Today in class we watched "Jesus de Montreal," which was pretty good. Then we had to have a very rushed lunch at the boulangerie on rue Sherbrooke in order to catch a bus. We visited la Maison St-Gabriel, which is a house from the 1600s. It was a farm and one of the first schools started by Marguerite Bourgeois. It was actually really interesting. If anyone wants to know how to preserve turnips, just ask me.

The WE girls went to rue St-Catherine and did a little shopping in H&M. When I got home, I was really hungry. I made sure I didn't eat a lot for lunch because I wanted to be able to eat a lot with Angela. This ended up being a really good thing because dinner was REALLY yummy! Then I did some homework and played with Pucci. Tonight was fun because Angela taught me some card games on her Italian card deck (which is very different from a standard deck of cards) and then we talked about weddings and showed each other pictures of weddings and then looked up our houses on Google Earth. It was really enjoyable.

This will be my last post until Sunday because I'm not taking my computer with me to Quebec city (!).

Message to Linnea to read on Saturday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NIIIHHH-NUUUUHHHRRRR!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND YOU'RE AN AWESOME THITHTER!

Song of the Day: I didn't listen to any music today.

Breakfast: Special K

Lunch: Yogurt with fruit and granola, blueberry muffin

Dinner: Gnocci with ricotta cheese, spinach, and homemade sausage (yum!)

Hi!

Ok, before my regular update, I would like to comment on a few things. I've enabled anyone to be able to leave comments on the blog, even anonymously, so you don't need to have an account. Secondly, a lot of people have been asking for more pictures. I don't want to post all of them because I want to be able to show them off when I get back, but I will post a portion of them.

Alright! Today, after lunch (Burritoville!), we walked up Mont Royal. It was snowing, which means it wasn't as cold as it usually is. It was so beautiful and calm and relaxing! The view was really awesome. It was nice to do this because we usually just do city stuff and it was nice to do more nature-y things. Then we went to get hot chocolate and watched the ice skaters. After that, we went to the St. Joseph Oratory. I really love visiting churches and being really excited about what the inside is going to look like.

Then I had to be on the metro for about an hour because I was so far away from my station. Angela and I had dinner tonight with Massimo and Suzie, which was fun. Everyone talked so fast, but I could understand about 65% of things (which is better than 0!).

Breakfast: Special K and an apple
Lunch: Three bean chili burrito
Dinner: Homemade Italian pizza, cheese, and wine

Song of the Day: "Saint Simon" by The Shins

Today we met at the Institute and had a guest speaker give a presentation on marine life in the Saint-Laurent. It was really interesting and easy to understand because she didn't have a strong accent. Then our prof took us out to a Lebonese restaurant for lunch and it was super tasty! Us girls decided to speak only in French for the entire time we were with our prof from now on (because that's basically class-time). It was actually really easy and fun because we could help eachother out. A lot of people have accidentally been answering questions in English but with a French accent (example: saying "Really?" but with a French "r." Sooo funny). We then took a tour of the Musee de Marguerite Bourgeois and la chapelle Notre-Dame de Bonsecours. We went to the top of the tower and I got some really nice pictures of the angels. After the tour, us girls stayed in Old Montreal and got a coffee. We were walking past the Jaques Cartier plaza when this guy stops me and starts cutting out my silhouette in black paper. He did it so fast that I couldn't stop him so I just was duped into standing there and letting him do it. I hate that this sort of thing always happens to me because I look impressionable. The he said that he usually sells these for $15, but that I could pay $10! I didn't even ask him to do this! I says I didn't have $10, but I gave him $3 because he was nice and it was silly and he looked cold. Anyway, now I'll have a stupid souvenir. At the cafe, I had a "Da Vinci" which is espresso with gelato and whipped cream (!!!). It was really good, but a little too strong. I'm just not ready for straight-up espresso yet. Tonight we're going to see the play, Le Borgeois Gentilhomme so I'm excited about that.

I'm finding that after a week it's pretty easy to have a conversation with my host-mom. I feel like I'm gaining confidence in my French and that I can understand what she says to me (and that I have more things to say back!). I can't wait to see how I progress after three weeks!

Breakfast: same old Special K (but it's so yummy!) and a cappuccino
Lunch: Beef pita sandwich and chopped potatoes with garlic sauce (really good).
Dinner: Salad (just lettuce, of course), rice and really yummy chicken with stuffing. I eat such good food here.

Song of the day: Everybody (Backstreet's Back) by the Backstreet Boys. I'm not ashamed. That song gets me so pumped in the morning.

Bonjour tout le monde!

Today was a fun day! We started off at the Institute where we read a short story and the newspaper. We then went to un librarie (a bookshop) when I found a ton of things that I wanted to buy for my family, although I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of things for Mike! Then we went for lunch at Swartz's Deli, which is a Hebrew deli and probably the most famous restaurant in Montreal (or at least one of them). It's very much like Yesterdog. There's really only one thing you can order: smoked meat, usually a sandwich. And the service isn't necessarily nice. It reminded me a lot of Yesterdog, actually. My sandwich was really tasty and filling! Then we had a un apres-midi libre. Us eight girls went to La Petite Italie and visited the indoor market there. It was so neat! I wish we had one in GR. I bought something for Alex/Julia and for Mike's parents. La Petite Italie was a little disappointing because not a lot of things were open. Then we went to Kim's house and hung out in her kitchen for awhile before dinner. We had such fun conversations about Harry Potter, Twilight, hair, and other random things. We laughed so hard. These girls are so nice and full of giggles. I'm really glad that it's such a small group because we can do things all together. We went to dinner where Kim's host-mom works. It was fun. I ordered a fruity alcoholic smoothie-thing! It was so yummy! On the way home on the Metro, we had to get off the train because there was "un incident" or "un accident" (I couldn't hear really well. It was all in French.). After 15 minutes or so, though, we could get back home. Now I'm having un thesane (NOT un the!) with Angela. Apparently "the" (tea) is just plain tea or green tea, and "thesane" is any kind of herbal tea. So weird. I asked her if she has "the" every night and she says, "This is NOT 'du the!'" "Sorry, Angela!"

Oh, and Kayla, I ripped my PAJAMA PANTS! that you gave me!!!

Breakfast: Special K
Lunch: Smoked meat sandwich with fries
Dinner: Penne pesto with pine nuts, tomatoes, and goat cheese (!!), and a crepe.

Playlist of the day: The first three chapters of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on my iPod.

Today we went to church and I could actually understand almost all of the sermon! I was excited. Then we had some food there. After lunch, we looked at the Marie-Reine-du-Monde which is another pretty basillica. Then went ice skating in the atrium of a big building. After we were done skating, our prof left and us girls went to rue Sainte-Catherineand went into a bookstore with really cool stuff. Then we went to the souterraine and got crepes in the food court (my first crepe of Quebec!!!). We sat there and talked for about an hour and a half. It was really fun just hanging out with everyone! When I got home, Angela and I talked for a long time about our families and she showed me pictures of the Italian village where she used to live. Then I played with Pucci. Apparently he likes to lick my feet. Constantly. It was a good night!

Breakfast: Special K
Lunch: chips and salsa, potato salad, pita bread, salad, a crepe!
Dinner: steak with cranberry sauce on top, peas, mashed potatoes, tea after dinner, comme d'habitude!

Song of the day: "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" by Of Montreal

Dinner: veggies, little deep-fried pockets with shrimp inside (Portuguese), vegetable bisque, homemade lasagna, chocolate cake, red wine. Oh yeah, and Angela's belle-fille told everyone that she's pregnant! I felt like an 8th wheel. But it was fun!

I'd just like to say that I have taken some pretty awesome pictures so far. Today was BEAUTIFUL, though cold. Blue skies, sunny, absolutely amazing lighting! I took pictures of my lunch today and they look like they should go in Real Simple magazine of something. Today was our free day. Us girls got together and went to the Latin Quarter. I bought a purse for $30.00 (I shouldn't have!). We ate lunch at a little bistro and I had such yummy and unhealthy food! Then we went to le Plateau Mont Royal and walked around some more. We took a bus to the Olympic Stadium and went inside. A lot of us really needed to go to the bathroom, but we hadn't been able to find any! A security guard thankfully let us in to the main area and told us where the bathrooms were. All in all it was a fun day. On Monday, us girls are going to go to a restaurant/club where Kim's host mom works. I think that will be fun.

I'm also spending way too much money here. I'm going over my lunch budget every day. It's that darn Canadian tax!

Breakfast: Special K, cappuccino.

Lunch: Grilled French bread, croissant, a bowl of chocolat chaud (!!)

Dinner: ??? (We're going to Angela's son's house (Mossimo) for dinner in about 30 minutes.

Today was our tour of la Vieille Ville. It was freezing but charmante! I didn't get lost today, but I found out why the man that I asked at Tim Horton's refused to help me last night. Remember to have me tell you when I get back. It's a funny story. We also went to the Museum of Archeology and History. It was a fun day and I feel tired, but in a good way.

Breakfast: Special K and apples from the farmer's market

Lunch: Chicken, Beef, noodles, a dumpling at a restaurant in le Quartier Chinois. We had a hard time ordering and getting the waitress to understand that we wanted menus, not more dumplings!

Dinner: Tortellini soup, salmon, and deep-fried rice balls. Yum!

Bonjour tout le monde!

Last night I realized that I cannot sleep without white noise. Alas, Angela did not have a fan. So, I ended up looking online for a white noise simulator and fell asleep to that. I had a dream all in French, but I woke up at 6:30.

Today we met at the Institut Farel. It was easy to get to and I like the Metro. We walked around the area and actually stopped in to the same boulangerie that we went in the last time we were in Montreal, and I had a chocolatine - yum! We visited Concordia University and had lunch at McGill university, which has really old, pretty buildings. Then we took a guided tour of the underground Montreal. Basically it's entire city of shops underground which connects the metro and buildings and stores. We started the day out talking all in French and by the time the tour was done (two hours later), we were talking in English and whimpering. I should have brought better shoes.

Anyway, we visited a wine shop and we went into a room that had vins de prestige. I started out gasping at the $750.00 label on some of the wines, but after I saw one for $7,000.00, I stopped being surprised. I'm sorry, Mom and Dad, but I don't love you that much.

Then it was time for me to go back to my house. I did well getting onto the right Metro connections, but when I got on the bus, I went too far north. You'd think the buses would say where they were, but no. So I got lost. At night. I ended up walking around, getting on the bus again, and then walking around some more. I went into a Tim Horton's and asked a guy "pourriez-vous m'aider?" and he just shook his head and walked away! So I went to a gas station and asked the girl there for directions. Turns out I was only two stops away from my street.

I didn't anticipate how absolutely exhausting it is to speak another language all day. It's like your mind is working overtime. But I find myself forgetting whether I wrote something in English or French and whether someone is speaking English or French. But I think that also might be because I'm trying to think less in words and more in ideas. I'm telling you, it's tiring!

Anyway, BIG shout out to Linnea for lenging me her iPod. That Genius button is amazing. I'm especially fond of the Genius playlist of "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire (for the morning commute to Farel) and the playlist of "Passing Afternoon" by Iron & Wine for evening when I'm tired. Thanks, Ninner!

Food log:

Breakfast: Special K, chocolatine, cappuccino

Lunch: fruit, pot pie (I thought it would be a regular chicken pot pie, but it turned out to be fish!)

Dinner: "macaroni:" noodles with a tomato sauce and homemade meatballs. Dessert: tiramisu. Oh yeah.

!!!!

I fixed my Internet! I fixed my Internet!

Away We Go...

My day started out with me trying to decide whether or not I really needed to bring my useful - yet heavy - French/English dictionary. I decided to go with the dictionary and cut a pair of boots.

The plane rides were relatively uneventful and punctual. Almost boring. Interestingly, the clouds all the way from GR to Cincinnati to Montreal looked like when Linnea swirls around ranch dressing on her plate and makes designs.

Montrealers drive like Bostonians. My taxi driver was crazy. I almost threw up. I was just sitting there thinking, This is going to be my first experience on this trip? Throwing up all over a minivan? I don't think so.

So I got to Angela's house and her son and daughter-in-law were there. Massimo (her son) speaks English so he helped me out. Anyway, I walked in the door and she tells me that dinner is all ready. Silly me, I though dinner was going to be just the soup. We had soup, then meat and veggies, then bread, then an Italian Christmas cookie, then cappucino, all paired with wine (I drank it even though it was red!!).

The I unpacked and tried to get on my computer. An hour and two different neighbors trying to help later, still no internet. But I did find out that my computer has a Trojan. C'est super. So, here I am, using Angela's computer, wanting to cry because I'm frusterated with my computer and everyone talks so fast that I can't understand them. *Deep breaths* I will get better at this.

Song of the day: Two Towns from Me by Blind Pilot