Bonjour!

So I know its been a while since my last post! I am sorry, but its been crazy here! Today is my "day off" since I dont have classes. I will do a quick recap of the last week!
Friday- I was super tired because we went to the chat noir and didnt get back till late. Megan and I just hung out that night. We went to the pizzeria for the first time. It was pretty fun. Megan got a salad and pizza and I got spaghetti and we split fries and a banana split! it was good! Super cheep too!
Saturday- We meet up with a friend from my class down in centre ville and went to a cafe and got some cokes. It was pretty fun. Then me and megan meet up with Janelle and Delphine to do some shopping. We are still enjoying the sales :) I was super tired that night so I stayed in but Megan went out with a friend from our dorm. His name is Raoul, hes Indian, and probably the sweetest guy I've ever meet!
Sunday- We did homework and chilled out because again NOTHING is open on Sundays!! yay...
Monday- Classes were okay, for some reason I couldn't sleep sunday night and did not feel well during class. Patricia is one of our teachers and she picks on me so badly. She called on my 4 time one sheet of paper to answer it. There are 11 other people in the class, call on of them!
Tuesday- At night Janelle, megan and I went to get half priced beers.  Since I can't drink beer I got a glass of wine. It was okay, super dry.. Then we went to a hookah bar. It was pretty fun! It was the first time I had ever smoked hookah. I only did it a couple of times because it gave me a headache. We did grape flavor, it was pretty good! After that we went to the Love Boat! Its a bar that has ESN (exchange students) parties every Tuesday night. We did a little bit of dancing and meet some NORMAL people in our dorm! Yay! We made friends with a German girl, two English people (boy and girl), and one other girl from Australia! I am glad we went. Next week we are going to ask them to go with us! :)
Wednesday- sucked. I was super tired because of going out the last night. And i had 8 hours of class! oh well! It was worth it. We went to the pizzeria again and I ordered HORSE! It was interesting. It was like ground hamberger and pretty good, but kinda greasy. I dont think i will be eating it again.
Today- Were going down to centre ville to check out some new places. We ordered a fridge and that is supposed to come today soon!
I hope everyone is well! miss you all!

 at centre ville on saturday!

 the half priced beers and my wine!

 CHEERS

 The hookah bar

the hookah!

Le chat noir!

Last night we went to a night club! Megan, Janelle, Janelle's boyfriend's sisters Delphine and Clémence and I all went, it was so much fun! First we went to a bar and meet a super nice bartender. He loved english people so he kept giving us free shots! YUM. He gave us this coffee one which basically tasted like a mocha frap! :) Then we went to the club which was called le chat noir (the black cat).  We danced on the tables and showed those french girls how to dance. I meet a really nice Italian guy who kept telling me he loved me... Another guy kept coming up to us and holding our faces and going AMERICANS! I LOVE YOU and running away.. 
They played songs like Aqua Barbie Girl, Who Let the Dogs Out, and I Love Rock n Roll. It was pretty interesting  All the songs were American songs. 
Micki- what was that phrase you told me at Buffalo Tap to say to guys?  There were some pretty groppey guys there. I kept ripping there hands off and yelling NO! haha it was awk.
Hope you are well!

 Left-Right: Janelle, Clemence, Delphine, Me, Megan

 Italian Boy

The club

falling into a routine.

Lets see, not to much new since my last post.  Classes have officially started.  They are going well. Yesterday we took the hardest test of mine and megans lives.  It was ridiculous. The writing part was super long and the listening part was on a cassette tape from like the early 80s? We could not understand a thing and it was a man with a super deep voice trying to sound sexy and singing! Then we had to fill out a whole sheet of answers.  ughhh. Then we had to answer these ridiculous culture questions. I am so glad its done.. oh yea and it was 4 hours. ick. Then we had classes. They are going pretty well. I prob will not blog everyday now since things arnt changing too much. We are planning to go to Paris next weekend. I will post lots of photos!
There are a lot of exchange students in our dorm from Africa. They really like me and megan. So we are making lots of friends but they can be a little much... They are very interested in America culture and want to talk to us A LOT.... its a little annoying.  They speak fluent French and some English and some have said they will help us with French if we help them with English.
The guy next door who sings (badly) now has a drum set to go along with his guitar... can't wait to hear that! (heavy heavy sarcasm implied)
hope all is well!
Love
Sarah

freaking cold a$$ shower

Well not much has happened today.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is closed on sunday.  So we slept as late as we wanted (1030 for me!) and we watched some free tv episodes from itunes and goofed around on the internet.  I practiced french a bit then we cooked dinner. Potatoes and eggs. I am going to be so sick of eggs by the end of the week. But since we dont have a fridge, the eggs here aren't refrigerated so we eat those for protein.  I tried to take a shower but the water was so cold it made my hands hurt. I ended up just washing my hair in the sink in my room.. Hopefully they aren't going to that cold all the time.  We have our french test tomorrow. Its like a pretest, so i need to get lots of sleep! Hope everyone is well, miss you all. If you would like to skype me just email or comment and we can set up a time!
Love,
Sarah

first saturday!

Raspberry wine! So excited. Today was pretty fun! We explored down town and ate lunch at a sit down place. It was super good! :) I had spaghetti with hamberger something. We went grocery shopping. It was a pretty lazy day. The "RA" came in and talked to megan mainly, because I was so nervous. He was really nice and talked slow for us. Hope everyone is well

 megans salad

 raspberry tart!

 starberry tart

 yummmm

 random tower!

my lunch!

Liiiiight-bulb

 Today was pretty good.  There is a guy in my class that looks just like Gru from Despicable Me.  I took a stealth photo and I will post it below. He even has a little bit of the same accent as Gru! It is so funny!  Today I turned my paper work in and should have my student ID soon! finally! I rewrote all my notes and practiced with my Rosetta Stone.  I feel so accomplished!
An embarrassing thing that happend to me today.  The bathrooms dont have toilet paper so you have to bring your own.  I do not want to use all mine up placing a bunch of tp around the seat (its gross to sit on the seat, since there is pee all over it) so I stole a bunch from school. (hehehe) Then I went to the boulanger to get lunch, just a sandwich, and i pulled out my wallet and a bunch of toilet paper fell out of my purse.  The lady who worked there starred at me... ugh it was embarrassing!
Hope everyone is having a good day! :)
love you all!

Gru! hehe

these are some pictures of campus. the grass is so green

So much water

Not too much is new today.  Classes went well today again! I am so pleased about that. Today I slept till noon! haha. Megan and I went to a pasta place for dinner! I had pesto! it was super good, it had a little minty taste though. Something weird that I have noticed is I have been drinking a liter of water a day! I fill it up every night and drink it during the day. It is so weird! Hope everyone is well!

all the water ive been drinking!

Oh vache!!

Today was the first day of official classes.  I am in a group with people who are in the same level and have the same problems as me.  I meet with this group about 4 times a week for 2 hour chunks then I choose three other classes.  I choose pronunciation, civilization, and oral situations.  I am excited to start.  I had a lot of fun in class today.  There are a ton of South Korens in my class there is about 15 in my class and 6 of them are South Koren, 2 are Middle East, 2 from Africa, 1 from China and me. The professor made all of us stand up and say our name, age, nationality, about our family and where we live in Nancy.  I was super nervous but this one guy next to me was nodding and smiling at me the whole time.  After we were done and had a break he came up to me and said in English, "It was really nice to hear an American accent." I was totally stunned.  We also learn expressions that the French say when they are surprised/angry/shocked/in pain.  I thought it was very funny that the French say "Oh vache" (oh cow) when they are surprised, because it is a lot like holy cow! Why do cows equal surprise? 

this is my schedule! the blue are the classes im taking.

We also went out for the 1st time tonight! Janelle took us to a bar where they served 1/2 price beer.  Unfortunately the bar was packed, so we went to a restaurant/bar.  We ordered a pizza with potatoes and bacon on it and I ordered a pina colada.  It was kinda gross.  It was very milky and barley any ice. We also walked around old town a bit.  The town is so gorgeous!!

at the bar!

 at the town square

 near old town

 under an old arch

gorgeous cathedral!

in case you wanted to see a french toilet

Okay, apparently the French dont believe that toilet seats are "sanitary."  So they dont have them.  They also do not provide you toilet paper and the sinks are in our room.  I still dont really understand how squatting is better then touching all the door handles to go to your room then wash your hands.  They also do not provide you hand soap... perfect. The bathrooms are pretty gross. They smell like pee and I am pretty sure we share with boys... gross!

orientation!

Today we went to class, got enrolled, and started talking about classes.  We also visited a women in the ERUMAS who helped us get started on our student IDs.  After class we walked around a bit and saw some pretty sights.  One think I have noticed is that there is dog poop everywhere on the streets! it is so gross! 

Just a very cute piece of town! everything here is so green!!!

Today was so much better than yesterday.  We did not do much.  Went into town and found out where we need to go for tomorrow.  We got breakfast/lunch at this cute little bakery. I ate a yummy ham and cheese sandwich.  We also went to town with Jannelle and one of her friends.  They are both so sweet.  Megan and I got a cell phone to split and we also got groceries.  Just some snack food since we STILL don't have a fridge :( I am just glad today was better. Tomorrow we are going to enroll in classes, get student ids and maybe pay French social security. I am starting to realize how easy things are in America kinda miss it! 

megan and me outside our dorm (monbois) is the one on the left with the B!

This in the town square in Nancy! it is so beautiful! I will post more photos of Nancy later. 

Dorm room 2

The pictures below are my dorm room.  It is good and bad. I have sink in my room, huge desk and huge closet! which i love, but the walls are paper thin and there are not any screens on the window.. and i am on the 4th floor.  I guess the French dont have the same safety standards.. The person next to me, who is a guy, sings really late at night and he sings about as well as me.. so not well at all! Hopefully lights get fixed today!
Love,
Sarah

Dorm room

Dorm

I'm on the forth floor in a room right next to Megan, which is really nice. Unfortunately my room does not have working lights, and we do not have a fridge. I am nearly all unpacked and took shower which was really weird because there's a button that you need hold down the whole time you shower! Then the fire alarm went off twice.. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and I can get lights! Hope everyone is well! Miss you!
Love,
Sarah

we have arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After our 8 hour and 18 minute plan ride we made it to Paris at 900 am. We then had to take a shuttle to the train station and then two metros to get to our actual train station. It was so frusterating and long trip! We took the TGV to Nancy and got here at 2:45. Now we are chilling at a really nice girls house who works in the exchange program! soo we are going to our dorm at 7ish and hopefully from there i will have internet and i can update more there!!

On the plane

The kind man at checkin gave us a FREE upgrade to economy plus. An extra 5 inches.. Oh yeah! Haha great way to start the trip :)

At the airport

Other than paying 70 dollars for my extra bag, checking in was super easy. We got to the airport way early. So time to just chill at our terminal! Miss everybody already!
Love sarah