Week 5

Things with my family have gotten a little better since that fight. Now that they understand me things have been okay. They are even letting me eat with them seven days a week which is not a part of my program so that I don’t have spend so much money on food at restaurants and what not.

I have been training with this French club team for two weeks now. My impression of athletics in France is that they are much inferior to the sports in the US. While I get a good work out each day, the work outs aren’t nearly as intense. I find myself having to do a lot extra on my own. I am still glad I get practice with other people because it makes training more fun and so much easier. My teammates call me "RiCan" which is the slang word for american.

I also don’t think the people on my team here take track as seriously. I feel like super woman when I practice with them. They warm up for like 10 minutes; I warm up for like 35 minutes. I do abs and cool down everyday but they just leave right after the workout. The weightlifting program is extremely easy. They lift 1 time a week instead of the two or three times I do. Also, they are always always late!; even the coach. One day, he showed up like an hour late. Some people on the team just left but I need to work out regardless so I did a running workout on my own.

I got another new roommate this week. This will be my third roommate in Paris. My second roommate was a male that was 30 years old, named Daniel. Daniel is from Switzerland and he took an intense French class in Paris for two weeks. His French was much better than my first roommate. He is confident and even when he doesn’t know the word or expression he still speaks. I liked him but it was a little awkward for us to ever go out together at night so we only ever communicated at dinner. My third and final roommate is here! She is from Columbia. Her French is soooooooo good! I am super excited to hang out with her. We had a very special dinner for her arrival. We drank champagne and red wine! I definitely did not get that when I arrived  but oh well, at least I get to have it in honor of other people.

This week, I went to a French cooking class! It was amazing; we learned how to cook salmon. It was probably the best salmon I ever had. It was only a 45 minute cooking class, so things were prepared very quickly. We rapped the salmon in this thing flat bread with tomatoes, onions and seasoning. We then cut the green beans and made a special mayonnaise sauce for them. Then the ten of us sat around the table had small talk while everything was cooking. It was difficult for me to following the directions in French but I did pick up a couple words like “preheat.” It was a great little cooking class and the food was soooo good. I also had some smoked salmon in Paris at this café called Paul’s and it was the best I ever had. Maybe salmon is just better in France.

This weekend my school had picnic at this park known as "Parc de Flora" next to Chateau Vincennes. It is a beautiful parc but it was raining so it was cold and wet. We had so much food, but it was mostly junk. It was a nice get together. I got to know a lot more people, french and american.

I have midterms next week! I think I am going to rip my hair out. I really don’t feel like I am ready. I barely understand the reading in French, but I am going to office hours to figure it all out. I have a presentation on Monday and a written midterm on Thursday. As luck would have it, my French professor decided to make it open book, she has mercy for us. Usually that means t hest is going to be harder but hopefully not. Pray for me!