so many pastries

another week has gone by. another day in the life.
once again i think my schedule will be changing. so i guess those last two blogs saying i figured out my schedule were kind of lying. but this is what happens when you are trying to figure out what you can get to transfer for credit for back home, and then what happens when you realize you aren't sure if you will survive a class that there is only a good probability you can get credit for. oh the joys of studying at a different university.
so at this point it looks like i may only be trying to get credit for one of the two education classes i could get credit for while abroad. why? because with the classes i have found, the other one would involve writing a 20 page paper. IN FRENCH. and i'm just not sure i could handle that. especially when i already know part of the paper is going to involve me comparing this class with a class similar to this i've taken at home. problem with that? i haven't taken any similar classes at home.
unfortunately, this will make my hopes of finishing all of my classes by next june even more difficult, if not impossible to accomplish, but i don't think i really feel like torturing myself with a scary class this semester. call it a cop out, call it whatever. but i'd actually like to continue enjoying my time abroad. there is so much more to being abroad than simply the courses i take, and i don't want to forget that.
and i have really been enjoying my time. this past week, i have even been speaking more french! and eating wayyyy too many pastries. i think i'm going to try to not eat a pastry for a week (unless provided by my host parents of course). we'll see how that goes though. they call to me sometimes, i just can't help it.
in part though this whole pastry business has been because my friend minerva left today, and before she did, we wanted to try a few more pastries. most of which were delicious. a couple less so. i've discovered i much prefer flan nature to flan chocolat. and the patisserie near the park that has always looked so delicious, really isn't all it's cracked up to be. especially since it's a little more expensive. but at least now i know!
so friday once again involved pastries and wandering all over town with minerva. one of her last chances to take in this beautiful city before she went home.
then friday evening i headed to samina's apartment for dinner with her, her italien roommate, and her italien roommate's french friend. which meantttt we spent the entire evening speaking french! it was a ton of fun and makes me realize i really wish i had more friends here who don't speak english. i've also discovered i'm a lot more confident in my french speaking abilities when i'm not in a classroom. for some reason when i am, i always seem to choke up a little.
saturday afternoon i had tea at milena's with minerva and patrick. plus milena played her cello for us! it was a lot of fun and a nice way to say goodbye to minerva until the rest of us return to california. though really, this whole people leaving france thing needs to stop.
by the time i got home early saturday evening, i was kinda tired and wasn't sure that i would be going out again that evening. until i realized my host parents were going out, and i felt that meant i should be doing something as well. so i sent chloe a text to see what she was up to, and soon had plans to meet her downtown later in the evening. and i am so glad i did. chloe, her friend, and i bought some wine (breaking one bottle and having to return to the store to buy another - i swear it wasn't our fault. the bottom of the bottle completely came off!) and then looked for a bar where people were dancing. the guy who sold us the wine was super nice though. he even opened our bottle for us and gave us free plastic cups! we are very classy people, obviously.
in the first bar we went to we met a french girl and ended up spending the rest of the evening dancing with her and her friends, at one point even following them to another bar. they were all really nice, but at one point it occurred to me they kind of needed us because there boy-girl ratio was not working in their favor without us! it was also nice to be forced to speak french again since most of them didn't really speak any english. i do hope chloe and i run into them again sometime in the future. we even had such a good time that although chloe and i had already decided we would return home in time for the last metros (around midnight) that as midnight came we changed our minds without thinking twice, and ended up realizing it might be worth it to pay for a cab for once. this was actually the first time i had ever taken a cab by myself!
after such a long vacation, it's been nice getting back into the swing of life in lyon again. yknow classes, going out, and wandering around town. eventually i might actually have a real schedule. this whole picking and choosing classes mess will have to end soon.. i mean we are about to begin week three.