Being sick abroad, holiday plans, and random observations

Mardi gras group shot- my host brother dressed up as an American cowboy

Hello, everyone! So, unfortunately I don't have as many photos to post here this week as I would've liked. I did go out for Mardi Gras, but I didn't feel very good that night, so I had an early night (Plus, as a Tuesday, it was a school night). The next morning when I woke up, I had a full-blown case of gastroenteritis (aka the stomach flu). For the next four days, I only left my apartment once, to go to the doctor. It was a really rough week. I ate so much rice because that was one of the few things my poor stomach could handle. My host mom was gone too, so it was just my host brothers and me and one of them was sick too. Luckily, my awesome host brother Alban cooked for me and gave me medicine. He also spoke English to me because I was way to sick to attempt French.

The girls drinking Alban's amazing hot cocoa

This was definitely the lowest point of the trip for me thus far. When you get really sick, you already want to be at home having your mom take care of you. This feeling only compounds when you're abroad because then you're in another country, in another home, feeling like complete ass and hating life. I really wanted to go home then and there. Luckily, this sentiment was really just because I felt so bad, but it was a brutal week for sure.

I haven't fared much better this week either. We have midterms this week in our elective courses. Everyone chose three electives (or more, if they wanted) to take for the term and we have exams for those and our vocabulary or translation course. They are actually examens blancs, which means they don't count for a grade. Their purpose is to show us what our finals will be like because the grade of the final exam dictates our grades in the elective courses. It's a good thing they don't count because I definitely didn't study for any of them. Last week, I was too sick to even pretend to think in French.

Dancing at Bukana, our favorite bar

Happily, this week is the beginning of my first vacation. In France, everyone gets four weeks of paid vacation off every year. They're staggered throughout the year. My first one is this week and then I have another week off in April, which is pretty sweet. I am going with my friends Van, MC, and Carl to Milan, Italy! We are getting there Thursday, the 21st and we get back March 3. We are also going to be going to Florence for 2 nights and maybe a day trip to Switzerland. There will be a lot of pictures to come. I can't wait to go. I've always wanted to visit Italy and here is my chance.

I was actually going to make this post about random observations and unexpected things I have discovered about France while living here and I totally got sidetracked. This post is also filled with random pictures of adventures in Grenoble. I am so ADD sometimes, even when writing. Well, I guess I can start now. This is such a confused blog. Haha.

Alban and me at the American Corner event

Ok, some random observations and discoveries (obviously, these are only my experiences in Grenoble and Paris and clearly not every French person/place will be like this):

• Toilet paper in France is pink. Who knew?
• In France, wherever you go, you always say hi and bye. I know, this seems fairly obvious. I tend to do this anyways, but the French are really quite picky about it.
• Almost all of the bathrooms are unisex and there's almost always two flushing buttons, depending on what it is. I think this is pretty cool because this is only just starting to appear in American bathrooms.
• The French don't really cuddle- this was quite a blow to me, as I am a big fan of cuddle puddles with friends. This is strictly a romantic thing, not something friends do. They probably would have no clue what a cuddle buddy is. 
• In terms of style, in general, the French people do actually dress really well. This is one stereotype that I've found to be true. They also really like blacks and greys, but not very much color in their clothes. 
• The French people I've talked to think that hugs are too intimate. They don't understand why Americans like to hug complete strangers. I personally think the kisses on the cheek are incredibly intimate and bizarre, so this is a good example of culture differences.
• There is a lot more street art and graffiti here than I expected. Some of it is really cool, but some is just like normal graffiti and it makes me sad because they're disfiguring buildings that are hundreds of years old. I know some people who are totally into the street art style, but that is not me.
• The French don't seem to view exercise in the same way. For the most part, the French body type is very thin, with no body fat or muscle and although they're quite active, gyms aren't very popular here. They don't see the point; they'd rather go ski or rock climb or something.
• French drunk people and American drunk people are the same. I hadn't expected this to be different and it's not.
• When you're translating something from English to French, you have to be very careful because it's super easy to say something was sexual or romantic. For instance, if you want someone to visit you, you can't say, Visite-moi! because that means visit me in the bedroom, essentially. You have to say, Rend-moi une visite! There are lots of things like that. I know because there have been multiple times when I am eating dinner with my host family and I say something and my host brothers immediately start laughing. The example above actually happened tonight.

You can tell he's really into it

Well, that's just a starting list. I'll continue adding to it as I experience more of France. I will try and do at least two blog posts about Italy as I am sure I will have a ton of pictures. 

As an ending note, today is Aaron's and my two-year anniversary. I just wanted to give a shout-out to him. I love you, babe! I am looking to more years to come with you. :) Bye, everyone!