Smile-lines like Canyons, Paparazzi Frowns

Salut! It has been a busy last few days. But I have no other excuses for leaving my blog in the cold for nearly a week. So, I'll pick up where I left off. Wednesday was a day of class so I won't bore you with those details, but that evening, I had dinner with the host family upstairs who is hosting two of my friends from K. I had to eat with the Dennis' (that's their name) because my host mom was busy that evening and didn't have time to cook. It was nice to meet them and even nicer to visit their apartment because they have a dog! His name is Dix [deese] and he is adorable. What made him even cuter (in a bit of a sad way) was that he was wearing a plastic "cone of shame" to keep him from licking his paws. But it didn't stop his from demanding to be petted, running full-speed around the house or from laying on my feet.
Thursday was full of more classes and a meeting with the K program coordinator about the integrative volunteer project we have to work on this semester (aka the ICRP). All in all, I was pretty frustrated with the meeting because we mostly went over information that we already know about the ICRP, but I can see how having everyone together to hear it first hand may have been necessary. Thursday was also my roommate Zena (who actually doesn't share a room with me any more)'s birthday. We bought a cheap bottle of wine to drink with dinner, and proceeded to get an ear-full from our host mom about it's origin (a mix of all the "leftovers"), the process by which it was made (cheaply), and its "horrible" taste (yeah, but we're students). She told us that she would buy a good bottle of wine for us to try so we would know what good Alsatian white wine tastes like. And holy grape batman! is it so much better. The next night at dinner we each had a French glass of wine (much smaller than the well known American glass, often filled over halfway full) and it was delicious! *makes a check on list*

The Palais de Rhine in the Place de République

On Friday morning, I got up at 6:30am (yes, it's possible for me and yes, I did have to google it to make sure it really existed) to make it to my second option class of the week: pronunciation! It was worth the early morning a hundred times over. The professor is amazing and I think the class will help me more with my speaking than I first thought possible. I also had the time to finish my homework for the weekend while I waited for my 11am class to start. Bonus! The remainder of the day was spent wondering aimlessly around downtown and shopping for clothes way out of my price range.
Saturday was my host mom's birthday so when Zena and I came home for dinner, we brought some flowers with us. It was fun sneaking them into the apartment so she wouldn't see them until she came into the dining room to eat. Our plan succeeded (though we were a mess of giggles and sudden spouts of random French words in the process) and she loved them.

Inside the Palais de Rhine

And now I come to today. This weekend was part of Heritage Week. This is an event every year in Alsace where buildings that are usually only used privately are open to the public. There are tours and special extended visiting hours all for free. So today, a few of my friends and I went around town and visited these really awesome places, some of which can only be seen during heritage week. Yeah, really cool. Our first stop this morning was the Palais de Rhine in the Place de République. After lunch, we walked around the University of Strasbourg's campus and visited the Collection of Paleontology. Best choice ever!! It was a really small exhibit, but this place was so cool. Sadly, my camera died after entering the Palais de Rhine, but my friends got some shots (I might add some on here later). There were fossils dating from plants and trilobites somewhere in the early Cambrian to dinosaur eggs and prints to tools and skulls from Neanderthals. That exhibit made my day. There was definitely some skipping and humming.
Following the event du jour, I walked through the botanical gardens on (or near) campus and had a cup of hot chocolate at Café Brant with my friend Alana. When I got home, I was greeted by my host mom and a ten minute conversation in French about my day and the places I visited. She had never heard of the Paleontology exhibit (I know! So sad.) so I had to summarize and explain. Maybe my French is improving. If not my vocab, at least my confidence in flubbing up in the name of communication. Hear, hear! All for conversing, words for all!

Chocolat chaud

Speaking of improving French... someone has homework. Or does she? Tune in next week to see if our brave heroine gets her éclairs in a row.
-What éclairs?
-Huh, I swear they were sitting right there...
À plus!