Am I Clean?

After a very low key very mellow night at home on Thursday, Friday we went to class and as it was Friday we played Taboo and listened to some french music. Then we had some lunch at a little salad place-it was pretty American, I just had a very basic salad and some soup. Then we had a drink at a hole in the wall type bar, just a glass of red wine with a couple people. We walked toward the train station and back to the place de la comedie. Then we all went home for a couple hours to get some rest for our anticipated night out.

For dinner we had pasta with ham and a piece of fruit. Then we got ready and went to meet everyone at the cafe du theatre where we all had casual drinks and waited for everyone to join the group. We all walked to the Australian Cafe, which was supposed to be a really popular place for students and foreigners. It had life sized alligators and whales on the walls and played unbelievably American music. The play list included songs such as "who let the dogs out" (which helped me to imagine what it would have been like to be 21 in 1995-as good as having a time machine) and a Grease Mashup-which of course I loved and it culminated in all the bartenders standing on the bar and banging on things during "grease lightening." The downside was the 45 minute walk home, the upside was unlike my roommate I got to wear my shoes! (her feet are pretty beat up from blisters and what not)

Due to the teeniest bit of jetlag and just a little laziness we slept till noon and then got up to meet almost everyone in the group for what we thought would be a pleasant bikeride to the beach. However, it was really a bike ride to the outskirts of Montpellier which at one point had the lovely view of a pretty aggressive police arrest (don't worry dad I got out of the area as quickly as possible). Having asked for directions again we learned it was still a half an hour from the beach. By bus. This new piece of information encouraged us to turn around and return to Montpellier. We biked to a view point right of the Place de la Comedie, and again had to take a picture. However, with our group we end up taking a picture with everyone's camera despite the new technologies like facebook? We then returned our bikes-with the exceptional balance and signs that say "I'm a tourist" on them - they definitely weren't worth more than the two Euros we paid. But at the tourism office I bought a Montpellier teeshirt so it wasn't wasted! I mean we did get to see some very rundown parts of Montpellier and everything but I think my teeshirt was the best part!

On the way home my roommate and I stopped at a pattiserie and I got a little quiche and an apple crumble tart thing. Then we went to our house and rested-Kate actually took a nap and I caught up on my 30 Rock viewing. We were meeting for dinner tonight so we didn't eat at home. We ended up going to a restaurant called L'absolu, which was okay. I had a salad with potatoes, ham, and cheese on it, and caramel mousse for dessert-and some red wine.

We then went to a bar called "L'Angleterre" (or something similar) and caught the last couple minutes of their happy hour, and stayed and chatted for a while before heading to another bar we'd heard was good, "the barbarouse" this bar was themed like a pirate ship which meant when you went to it it was underground and the bar and everything looked like you were inside a pirate ship-wooden all over with nautical piratey decorations. We only stayed momentarily though because it was so crowded-I would like to go back on a less crowded night though. We then stopped inside a discoteque called the Oxymoron which seemed really weird so we stayed long enough to get a drink under the blacklight complimented by the flashy neon lights before moving on to return to Charlie's Bar, which we got some beer at but it unfortunately closed at 1 which allowed us to be there for only about 15 minutes. Apparently 1 o'clock on Saturday night is when everything starts to close down because we only found one bar after that (though I was ready to go home, my roommate was not) So we went to the bar and I spent most of the time convincing her we should in fact go home. My message finally got through at about 2:15 which got us home at 2:45 where our host mother opened the door for us! Apparently she wanted to make sure we didn't lock it because her daughter was coming home later that night. OOPS.

What I miss most about the US right now (aside from my family and friends of course) is the shower. Our shower has the flexible handle but no curtain. I don't really know whether to sit or stand or what when I'm trying to get clean. And washing my hair is impossible. But, c'est la vie!! I just wonder how clean I actually am...