No One Cares About the Super Bowl in France.

It was a very busy second week of classes, to say the least!  I still like my classes although the language block classes can get very boring and repetitive.  I think my favorite class is going to be French Society through song or Advanced Grammar (does that make me weird?) or the class on Candide by Voltaire.

On Wednesday my friends Christelle and Rob come in from Paris and Nurnberg, Germany to spend the day in Strasbourg!  I met them at Longwood last fall when they were both spending their semester abroad.  It was great!  I skipped classes that day (I only had 3) and showed them Strasbourg.  We had lunch in a restaurant/pub and spent the day exploring Strasbourg.  We went to the Cathedral square to try to see parts of Sherlock Holmes 2 being filmed but it was blocked off pretty far from the cameras so we could only see horses and buggies and a few extras in interesting costumes.  However, the three of us were pretty sneaky.  We went into Lacoste, a store that backs up to the Cathedral square and although the windows were mostly blocked, we managed to see this!

After walking around Strasbourg for the day, we went to a small bar called Zanzibar.  It was pretty quiet and relaxing but the back room/bathrooms smelled like Delta/Rugby house.  It was almost nostalgic.

Thursday I went to Germany with Harris and Christelle (she stayed the night in Strasbourg and went back to Paris the next day).  We hopped on the bus in Strasbourg and in 20 minutes, we were on the other side of the Rhine river and in Kehl, Germany!!!  I had so much fun in Kehl even though we only went grocery shopping and to a pharmacy-type store.  Food and household items are a lot cheaper in Germany.  I stocked up on Ritter Sport chocolate.  It is the best.

Friday I had class early until 4 PM.  It was so disappointing because it was soo beautiful in the afternoon but by the time I got out of class, it was cloudy again.  

Yesterday beautiful weather graced Strasbourg yet again and lasted the entire day.  I opened my windows and heard church bells ringing in the distance.  The sun was bright and the sky was a beautiful blue (it's usually very cloudy in Strasbourg so it was wonderful to see the sky) so I knew that I needed to take this as a sign to go shopping and make the most out of the last weekend of sales in France!  I went out by myself and I wasn't the only one taking advantage of the beautiful weather.  I think everyone in Strasbourg and the surrounding areas came to the city center to walk around.  There were street performers, a clown selling balloon animals, and demonstrations.  I'm still waiting to see a strike in France but I know it's coming soon.  I bought shoes, a skirt, a dress, and two shirts.  The sales here are amazing.  I wish they lasted all year long.

On a side note, while out shopping yesterday, I noticed that it is a worldwide phenomenon for women to go out shopping with their boyfriends.  I saw a German couple in a store and the poor guy was trailing behind his girlfriend while holding the 4+ shopping bags that more likely than not belonged to her while she was frantically sorting through clothes on the rack and only acknowledging his existence to ask him which color he thought would look better on her.  I thought it was just American women who tortured their boyfriends by making them go shopping with them.  False; this is a worldwide problem.  

After shopping, I met up with Brenah for an afternoon coffee.  We sat at an outside cafe and enjoyed the remainder of the afternoon although evening was quickly falling.  Then we walked around until we went back home for dinner.  Around 9, I met up with Brenah and Jillian at a bar called Brasseur (I think).  We shared a pitcher of amber beer and had a pretty low-key Saturday night but it was a lot of fun.  I noticed that pitchers in France are a lot bigger than pitchers at home.  After the pitcher, I had a blonde beer with grenadine, which I shared with Jillian.  It was a fun evening!  Here are pictures I took from Jillian, who documented the evening.

Me and Brenah

Me and Jillian

Today I went to Mass with my host parents.  After lunch, we went to a park called L'Orangerie with Axel, my 5-year old host brother.  It was just as beautiful outside today as it was yesterday but since everything is closed on Sunday, EVERYONE was at the park.  It was still a lot of fun and I had a great time walking around and enjoying the sunshine.  Tonight I'll be getting ready for another busy week of classes and writing my essay.  Tonight is the Super Bowl.  I wish I were home to watch it.  No one cares about American football in France or Europe.  I used to think that I didn't really care much for American football, either, but I surprised myself.  I thought I would be more OK with not watching the Super Bowl tonight than I actually am.  I'm going to miss the Super Bowl food (nachos, salsa, chips, wings, pizza, beer, soda, etc) and the awesome commercials that come with the game.  :(

With that being said, I hope Green Bay wins.