No Day But Today.

Literally.
I go home in nine days. Can you believe it? I certainly cannot.

Im bursting to say that I went on a 30km bike ride. Yes ma'am, that's 18 miles. Chelsea on a bike for eighteen miles in the French countryside. Who would have thought it? My legs were pretty wobbly the rest of the evening, but I loved it and I would do it again. Went with API and we had a picnic lunch out in the middle of nowhere. It was fun- even if every three minutes you heard "Ah, my >behind/derriere/crotch< etc."
It was hilarious and so much fun. It began to rain on us as we made it back into the city, but it was such a welcome ending. I got some sun. The weather was perfect- it was a bit overcast, but breezy, not stifiling hot. I remarked to Susanna that we wont see this kind of weather again until November. It was such a good day.

Ive been in the middle of finals. Classes ending, test taking, life here seems to be wrapping up. It's so surreal. On our last day of our language class (the group of 15 I've been with all semester) we had a "food festival" where everyone brought food from their part of the world. I made burritos! I paid SEVEN euros for a package of eight tortillas and a packet of spices in the "International" aisle in Carrefour. But everyone absolutely loved the burritos. It was so funny because Bekah has a picture of me with a Japanese rice ball wrapped in seaweed in my hand, next to my Japanese friend eating the burrito. Only in France. I loved it. And some of the kids in our class really can cook. It was so much fun. The Chinese girls made spicy tofu, the Chinese guy made carmelized pork of some sort, our French professor brought bread and cheese and wine, Jon from Washington made salmon dip, there were Mau-ko's rice balls, and then Taiwanese noodles. So yummy.

We had an oldfashioned sleepover the other night. Laura and Melenie made dinner- I was sick so I stayed away ;) - and it was delicious. What I could taste of it. But it was fun and nice to relax. We had dinner outside and watched the rain come in over the mountains.

My host mom made me a four month anniversary cake the other day that I almost died the second it entered my mouth. Think of a Terramisu but condense the taste of a whole one into one bite, and youll get kind of the picture of this cake. Im stealing the recipe.

I sunburnt myself while studying outside yesterday. Don't you hate when you put on sunblock, and you think you've been really careful and gotten every patch of skin, and then thirty minutes after you're back inside you find that one patch of exposed, sunburnt, lotion-less skin. Its more annoying than anything.

Yesterday was Mother's day in the US, so Happy Mom's day. I hope it was a great day. I want to know what Mom's surprise was. Mother's Day in France is on the 28th, but Vero said they dont make that big of a deal about it. Sad.

We had the API goodbye dinner. It was at a delicious couscous place, and Im now a huge fan of the couscous. If anyone knows a good place for couscous in Austin, let me know. And it's fun to say. Couscous. And easy to make. So I hear. Ill be attempting it this summer, that's for sure.

Ive started a list. A "Things I've Learned In France" list that I hope to be posting soon. I made one of these right after my freshman year of college, and it will be interesting to compare the two. Im sure I've learned some things again, and some new things.

What else. That's all for now. Ive got a final to take in two hours and I should review my notes. And by that, I mean see how much longer I can procrastinate.

Bonne journee!
A bientot,
Chelsea