Pau-rty Time

IT IS CARNIVALE TIME!!!! So today marked the first day of Carnivale, which is Pau's version of Mardi Gras.. Or maybe Mardi Gras is New Orleans' version of Carnivale.. I'm gonna go with that one. Well today I ventured out with my host mom as soon as I awoke and we bought "deguises" which are in fact disguises. The colors are red and yellow so I bought things accordingly. Everyone wears masks and dresses up for Carnivale, it's incredible. There is a guy who is the "king" and he heads the entire parade and also randomly grabs American girls and puts them on his chariot... After the initial thought of "i must be getting taken right now" wore off, it became quite fun. We chilled in the chariot and became part of the parade for a good 5 minutes which felt like an hour. These people are dressed up as the most random things. They also have some great stereotypes. There are french women dressed up as old fashioned amish-style women who are cleaning. I kid you not. There was a wash board, mops, brooms, and other cleaning utensils. I did not see how this had anything to do with Carnivale, but maybe they just hired maids to follow along in the parade to quicken the cleanup process. It looked as though people just threw on the first thing they found in a box in the attic from their grandma's closet. I hope that is specific enough. These people had the most ridiculous things attached to them. There was the infamous monsieur et madame bread-head who had wine, the chimney sweepers with wine, the amish women with, yep you guessed it, wine. Now you see why these people were acting so crazy. It was all in good fun, and the whole town came out to watch this parade that would have put Macy's to shame. Kidding. Everything in the parade would have been illegal in the United States, definitely lawsuits at hand. The biggest being that of the man accosting people with a fish. I guess its a tradition in Pau culture to throw fish, and to dangle fish on poles. REAL FISH. My friend got slapped with a fish, it was hilarious. Who came up with these traditions. How did someone possibly think "Wow this parade sucks, you know what it could use, some raw fish." Or maybe there was a paper epedemic and they ran out of confetti to throw so they had to resort to using fish guts. I think i just solved the mystery of the 10,000 fish that randomly died in Arkansas this past January....blame the french.

There are going to be Carnivale events all week, so i'm pretty excited. On Thursday there's going to be an event where everyone dresses in all pink and you basically just dance around and watch others do the same. I've bought a great get-up so i'll keep you pau-sted. Mom and Dad will be arriving here on Wednesday the 2nd, and will immediately be thrusted into the action of Carnivale, which will be great for their jetlag. I plan to take them to our local hangout and have a drink with my parents. That is so weird to say. Maybe i'll even make my mom bring it to me. I'll pretend to be the perfect student and the perfect host daughter and it'll be a fairy tale perfect visit. Who am I kidding, I am the perfect host daughter. I manage to keep things clean and tidy and I help out all the time. I love Christine so much that I had my parents order her the world's best gift. She's been collecting Swatch watches for years and has over 30 montres on her wall. As a result the Taren's have gotten her a Chicago themed Swatch. Best. Gift. Ever. She really deserves it, she's been an angel. Lets hope she doesn't take it as a sign that I think she's always late for things.

Welp classes started back up this week and that was fun. In between signing up for summer classes, looking for a job, and an internship, i had to go to real class. But don't be silly, that didn't stop me from staking out cubs.com for tickets to some games. That was the upside to the time difference, tickets went on sale at 5pm my time. Score.

Wow. I live in France. It's fun to be able to say that! I've been here for 2 months, and I only have 2 months left. It's bittersweet, because I love it here, but I do miss Chicago. The problem is that I don't know the next time i'll be able to go to Pau once i'm back in the US of A. I will definitely need to make it a habit to come back here, I have truly fallen in love. People actually stop here and let you cross the street, it is wild! Speaking of driving, Christine is teaching me and my 14 year old host brother how to drive stick shift within the next 2 weeks. We'll be going to a deserted parking lot.  Je suis tres content!!

I bought a little notebook and alphabetized the pages so that every time I learn a new word, no matter where I am, I can write it down and remember it. French is all about memorization, because half of the rules only work half of the time. I finally feel like my french is improving and i'm excited to see where i'll be in the next 2 months.

I have to go to bed, but i'll update the blog tres souvent because of the exciting events in the upcoming days!

Tchao (french version of Ciao)

Mars Bars