Bisous Nation (kissing nation)

Well today is the last day of vacation, and I'm ill-prepared to go back to school. By that I mean, I haven't prepared for any of my classes, at all. BUT, I did find a few folders left here from old assistants, which is like a gold mine. For 4 of my 7 classes I can just pick something out of that each week... But anyway, back to what went down over break.


I have a room now, which is stellar, though my belongings are far from organized (clothes are still in a closet in the living room). I realized today that what I thought was part of the design on my far wall was really more mold, though of a lighter variety. So that will have to get cleaned up. Soon. Before the vicious mold spores attack my lungs. Also, I bought what I thought was cool lampshade for the light bulb that hangs from my celing, but that ended up as a failure too. Apparently, and I had no idea, a pink lantarn will, when the light is on, emit hot pink rays all over one's bedroom. Oops. When I turned the light on my room looked like a brothel. Happily, Irene liked it and traded it with me for the light peach lantarn in her hallway. Now her hallway is hot pink, but to each his own.

My computer officially died as well. I come to you know from Irenes computer, and probably will be relying on her hospitality for the next week or so. If you remember that time when the backlight to my screen went out and you could only see the screen with a flashlight, well that happened on Monday so I took it in. Of course when the dude turned it on the screen was fine, but the hard drive really did need to go. For the bargain price of about 150euros... yeah sucky. But luckily I made recovery disks last week, and he seems to think that's all I need (and I saved everything on a hard drive at home, so I'm not too worried). He claims I'll get it back by the end of this week, but this is France, so I wont get my hopes up.

Friday we met with an ex-spanish student who wanted to chat with Irene in spanish. He was nice, but super bizarre, and so were most of his friends. One of his friends was super nice though, and she and I swapped numbers to hang out later (she also, coincidently, met my flatmate already on a train to Rennes and swapped numbers with her then). The guys were nice enough, but I felt a little uncomfortable talking because when I did they would comment on my "american" accent. That would have been fine, I mean I know I have a strong accent, but they didn't leave it at that. They proceeded to tell me I should keep my accent because its charming, blah blah blah, and then they'd pick out words that were 'cute' when I said them. So yeah, awkward. But later some guy busted out a guitar, and another started singing, and guess who he sang? Johnny Cash my friends, and he was cute too (has a girlfriend though, I think). I was estatic when they played Walk the line and Ring of Fire. It was awesome, and I sang along. Of course no one else knew the songs, because its a rare french person indeed who knows and loves Cash. But there you have it.

Sunday Ann-Helene took us to Chateau de Carrouges, a cute little run down castle further north. Apparently every old family wanted to have their own legend, and this family had one about a fairy or something. Id tell you the story, but its not that great. If you're going to give your family a legend, you ought to make it more exciting than a fairy who randomly disappears. I would, anyway. We also went down to the beach and watched the sunset over the channel. Good times. I'm starting to really like this place.

Now for the title. As some of you may be aware, France has a peculiar custom when they greet one another. If you live in the north, you give the person two kisses, one on each cheek. In the south you get three. Americans, well we dont do that. It's weird, and awkward. In America, if they're a stranger you either shake hands or nod your head, no uncomfortable kissing. But, if you're friends, you get a nice warm hug. In France, strangers get kisses, which is wierd, but friends only get cheek kisses as well. As weird as it sounds, the 'bisoux' are a bit cold for good friends. I prefer a nice big hug. Anyway, the point is, I explained to the friends on Friday that we don't do that in the US and they didnt believe me. I guess for them it would be strange not too. I had to bisous my swim coach yesterday, that was wierd. I just can't get used to it. The worst part is that if you come to a large group of people, everyone has to bisous everyone else, no exceptions. A lot of time is wasted with this bisousing nonsense. Mindy says if people here stopped bisousing already then they'd finally get some work down. What do you think? Bisous = good or bad?