C'est la vie avec mon famille!

Before I set out on my journey to Strasbourg for another great weekend in my Europe life... I made a pitstop in Metz to chill with Danielle considering we hadn't seen each other in weeks (i.e. she missed my birthday... but no hard feelings)! The funniest conversation was our walk to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner, as Danielle put it "about all our 'dislikes' but don't worry we enjoy our 'experiences'". We had a blast that night and hung out with Dani's classmates for the dinner party. There were a lot of good laughs (I want to say why but Danielle may kill me, lol) and watched the Wedding Crashers.

Friday I set out for Strasbourg to finally meet my host family after 3 YEARS! My train ride consisted of watching episodes of RENO 911... which is by far one my favorite shows---HI- LAR-I-OUS! When I arrived I was greeted by Baptiste and who I thought for the first 10 minutes of the car ride back to Gerstheim was his older brother Julian... turns out, it was his younger brother Victor with a hair cut, LOL. The car ride back consisted of trying to decipher American slang. Baptiste recalled when we were in high-school I called somebody "thirsty" and wanted me to explain. Let's just say this was beyond impossible because I don't know how to explain thirsty without using more slang... For example, my first  explanation for it was "You're doing too much" but clearly that does not translate well into French. Then I tried putting it into story form... "So there is a guy that really likes this girl and keeps buying her shoes, flowers, clothes, and spending all of his money on her but she doesn't like him at all"---they took that as thirsty meaning you like somebody very much, making my explanations a FAIL so we definitely had a good laugh about this.

Once we made it to the house... the night was set out for Folk Dancing at a bar in Ernstein, a nearby town. Now y'all know my realms of dancing consist of Salsa and Hip Hop... maybe a little quirky modern but Folk Dancing? o_O We got there I got a beer and the people set up to start playing music... Before I knew it MamAnnie (that's what I call my host mom) had me on the dance floor and joining the circle. It was by far one of the best dance experiences I have had! Your feet get to moving and the arm swings and quick turns... We left after about 3 good hours at the place and I was drenched in sweat.

Saturday included a breakfast (which I missed because I was beyond tired from Folk Dancing), but I made it down for a great lunch. After that, me, Baptiste, and Victor set out for their boy scout troop that they lead every weekend. This adventure consisted of going in the forest and playing a game, which the instructions I could not understand because they were in French but once I saw the kid start counting down and everybody running into the forest, I understood... We all know black people run and ask questions later, lol! I dashed off and made my way for the furthest tree that I could hide behind, however forgetting that I was still wearing the bright orange Illinois hoodie I have! After a while, I realized I should probably choose to stay a little closer considering they cover their eyes and count down from 10 and thats all the time you have to make it back to them. We played this for about an hour or so, and I probably made it back once, lol.

Once we got back to the house I had to take a nap because I was sooo tired. I awoke and proceeded downstairs to watch TV with the family and enjoy our Franglish conversations from politics, to Japan, to crazy French commercials. For dinner on Saturday, we had a crepe maker and got to personalize our crepes. I'm talking everything from ham and cheese, apricot jelly, to fruits and berries I can not pronounce. By far a tradition I will definitely have with my family... it was one of the best dinners of my life! Every time one of the brothers offered me water saying "You 'thirsty'?" We would all start rolling (another slang term which I probably can not explain... "rolling"--- meaning laughing very much)

That night we headed to the movies to see "True Grit" and it was decent. The movie was in english but the man was speaking in complete gibberish so I found myself reading the french subtitles too. BTW, the popcorn/candy packages are so much better than America's.

Sunday consisted of me waking and a little saddened by the fact that it was my last day. We ate some type of special bread they baked which was on point (<---another slang term here) and since Baptiste had to leave around 5 to go back to school we decided to go see Chateau de Frankenburg. It's a castle in the mountains and what was really cool was that I could see Chateau de Koneisburg, which we visited in high school, from there. First we drove up the mountain, but then had to park because you couln't drive the rest of the way. We got out the car (we parked by YAKS!---crazy cool) and Baptiste was pointing out the castle through the trees saying where it was, however I could not see a thing through all of those trees. We damn near hiked a mile and a half to get to the castle ruins. By the time we got there I was sweating and had to unzip my jacket and was about to take off my hoodie, lol. But once we reached the top... the view was AMAZING! Honestly I would take that 1.5 mile hike any day!

After the castle we went to a small little coffee shop just in town and I think I might have introduced the family to cheese cake (which is 10 times better in France... it was so rich and smooth). We dropped Baptiste off, had one more dinner at the house and before I knew it, it was time for me to come back to Paris.

Seeing my host family again was an experience that I was so blessed to have and that I am beyond grateful for. It amazes me how wonderful people can truly be and I love them sooooo much. Merci pour tout!

'Appy 'Irfday to ME: Why am I singing this alone, LOL

View of Bern Switzerland

The monumental 21st birthday of RSSJ was spent in the land of the Swiss (which is too damn expensive, lol). First stop on Friday the 4th was Bern after a 4.5 hour train ride. The city is built on hills, so me being a citizen used to the flat Illinois terrain... Switzerland presented a problem! Getting to my hostel proved to be a trial because, me and my lack of common sense as my ma would say forget to write the address to my hostel down and clearly my phonetics don't match the Swiss' at all, so I spent 20 minutes trying to get the taxi cab driver to understand where I was going. My hostel happened to be along the river which was really beautiful, however it was unfortunately DOWN hill from the city-centre. So after unpacking I had to make the hike back up... and lets just say I stopped to talk to a few of the stray cats along the way, cus that shit was INTENSE. Once, I made it up the hill... Three main goals: Einstein House (connect to the subject I hate the most i.e. physics, lol), Buy a watch, and the Clock Tower. It was really cool walking through the Einstein House and seeing the couch and tables where he once sat and ate. And apparently for the folks in Switzerland, the Einstein look is wats up because I saw hella dudes with unkempt gray hair and those mustaches! The clock tower was amazing to see and I did happen to find the watch that I most desperately wanted. However, I walked away and couldn't find the store again... *sadface* So after my day tours I went back to the hostel to skype only to discover that my Euro- wall adapter apparently does not apply to Switzerland *double sadface*. I could have sworn they were in the European Union as well, so with my computer dead after one Skype session with Jessica, I had to turn to the evening plans to a club.  After my search I found a club in the city, so I got dressed and made my way back up the hill around 10pm. I stopped at McDonalds (which was my only choice of meals because I was being cheap and that was equivalent to 12 dollars) and then headed to the club. Now, WTFITS.... I get into the club and there is literally no one there with a piece of facial hair... I felt like I walked into a high school dance, so clearly I had to dip. I spent that evening walking downhill and praying to God as my 21st birthday approached!

Nupey Pik

Happy Birthday to me, Happy birthday to me... what went through my mind as I woke up Saturday! I happen to have a very interesting breakfast to start my interesting day! I woke up to find that, and I don't wanna sound racist.... BUt one of the damn Asians in my hostel room stole my glasses... come on now, lol! I was mad but it isn't like they were RayBan's, so I got over it. For my birthday breakfast I had cereal with sunflower seeds in it... o_O Once breakfast was over, made my way to the train station for stop #2- Lucerne, Switzerland! It was so beautiful and I definitely enjoyed all of my 3 hours there. There was a festival going on and I was greeted by people dressed in all costumes and the sounds of a band playing in the distance. So me being me, I followed the sound and lets just say that band was cracking... they played Rolling in the River! As I continued to walk through the festive streets, I saw some cool clocks in a window that had star placements for zodiac, etc. Above all I found the H&M, lol So my bday was  going great!

This was good

That afternoon, I embarked on the journey to my last birthday destination, Zurich. I arrived and got soooo lost trying to find my hotel... the cab drivers wouldn't give me a ride because they kept saying it was right down the street but that damn thing was hiding from me! So after a few pitstops in random hotels and restaurants for directions, I finally made it there. Let's just say my Hotel was Ballin'! It definitely put a nice touch on my birthday... My room had a TV with two English Channels #FTW I spent my afternoon watching MTV and CNN, before taking a well deserved nap. Once I awoke from my nap, it was time to the hit the city! The churches and sites were phenomenal to see and on my way I saw this upscale cupcake shop... I figured no one else was going to buy me birthday cake so I celebrated with 2 red velvet cupcakes from the Cupcake Affair and they were sooooooooo good. A wonderful gift to myself and on top of that the shopping in Zurich: ON POINT, lol. After, walking around for a few hours (more hills included) I went back to the hotel to make my Skype BDAY Calls and check the FB wall. Honestly, this was definitely one of the highlights of my birthday... knowing that people truly do care and love is a good thing. After a nice chat with fam and friends, I had to get ready for the club connected to my hotel, called XTRA for Latin night. In short words, the club was KRAKKing... and apparently I was Kid Cudi for the night (must be the glasses that I had to replace at the nearest H&M thanks to those Asians, lol). However, the downfall was that I had no cash and the club excepted no cards so I was drinkless which is not an option for a 21st. So after an hour or so at the club I made my way to the Hotel's bar and ordered my first two drinks... A long island and a hurricane! To say the least I was alotta tipsy when I left there so my bday night was well spent.

Last Weekend of Break: Scared White Ladies and all

So considering that much of my vacation time had been postponed due to my lack of French speaking abilities and SFR(thats the internet company) I decided to spend my weekend it Paris and visited Ibrahim!

I got there a little early and the funniest thing happen when I approached his apartment building entrance. It was about 4pm and this little old white French lady started to approach the door... me being cautious (trying to avoid giving her any signs of trouble) stood back to let her enter the door! She kindly entered the code while glancing over her shoulder back at me and I must say, she probably scraped the skin off her knee caps and nose trying to hurry and close the door behind her while peering at me through the glass. So to be funny, I entered the code and walked right in behind her, lol (I know its bad!) But really lady, come on... you think I would rob you in broad day light with glass doors to your apartment building. But that was just my welcoming experience into Paris once again!

I called up Ibrahim to discover that he wouldn't be done with research until 6:30 so that gave me time to tour the neighborhood! I loved all the little shops of random quirky stuff, and when I actually put myself up to it... I will start buying people's souvenirs. I checked out the mall too, and I have come to the conclusion that French neighborhood malls are just better, but maybe thats becuase my neighborhood mall is Ford city, LOL!

Starbucks seat from 3 years ago!

Once I met up with Ibra, we took a trip to the Louvre... for the exclusive visiting time for city residents only... (this made me feel like a true Parisian!) Walking through the Louvre didn't seem as overwhelming from the first time I went back in high-school... Although I did get lost like 5 times and on one of those journeys, GET THIS, I saw two people I know from UIUC! WTF I am in the biggest museum of the world, during exclusive hours, on a Friday night, and I see two people I know... this world is truly small! Got to see the Mona Lisa, as close as you can get to it's nice and all but the whole big fascination especially when the picture directly opposite is HUMONGOUS (come on people!) The highlight of my Louvre trip was getting to take a picture on the exact sofa (at least I think it was) in the same spot of a starbucks me and my friends chilled in high school 3 years ago!

My Mona and nem' pose lol

Why does no one see me with that 5x7 across from me LOL

L'HOMME... all this for MENS SHOPPING! #FTW

After the Louvre, we did some intense window shopping in downtown Paris and it makes me want my engineering job NOW! You have Gucci, Louie, and POLO  (Black Label) chillin on the same block. The best thing about downtown shopping is this HUGE mall that has two buildings connected and one is completely dedicated to L'HOMME! I haven't been in there yet but I pray God keeps my wallet intact, lol!

Then we had dinner at McDonald's with a nice discussion about my educational future.. (debate over me taking Phys 212 again---DEATH OF ME) we headed back to his place and he discovered Lil Kim's new video dissing Nicki Minaj! Now I would have never thought in a million years I would be defending Nicki Minaj in any type of circumstance... However I feel that Roman's Revenge was a better song than that of Lil Kim's! Ibrahim being the person he is (a frikkin PhD owner) wanted to breakdown things all scientifically, without the basis of understanding the metaphors from Nikki's verses, LOL!

So after, about an hour of this I checked my email and what do I see... An internship offer from GE, which threw me into worship mode because this was definitely not a part of my expectations at all!  With that Ibrahim decided he was going out (mind you it was 3AM already) but I stayed in skyped with my ship, and watched a movie...

Saturday marked one of my favorite days in Paris----I TOOK A HIP HOP CLASS AT STUDIO HARMONIC! Funny how a language barrier totally disappears with dance! It was so much fun and I definitely enjoyed being in the company of other dancers.. makes me =D

LOVE's Reflection

I spent the last week of my break trying to figure out my internet situation, which didn't get figured out finally until YESTERDAY! I insisted on informing these people that I did not have the wall connection necessary, only to discover after a week it was hidden behind my gigantic shelving unit! #sadface

On a better note, I also spent my last week of break delving deeper into the word of God... with my new book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan (lol at first I typed Chris Francis and realized that was completely wrong) and if you want to be amazed check out this vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ya12I036lg.

Chapter  5 discussed LOVE, and what it truly means. It got me thinking about how we get so indulged in ourselves... We forget to love (the right way!) I took the verse, as Francis stated, from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient and kind; Love does not envy or boast; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.... faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is Love." and inserted my name in place of the word love, and it literally brought me to tears. This is how we should live each and every day carrying out Christ's greatest command... To Love each other!

Another part of Chapter 5 discussed how we should always be running after GOD, because if we are running how can we ever fail! He used the analogy of trying to race and eat a box of twinkies... at some point you will have to choose (question is we often times indulge in that twinkie and stop our legs from moving) This thought brought new meaning to one of my favorite songs by Tye Tribbett, "Chasing after YOU" Which is my profession to Christ... I will be running and seeking God for all of my days!

GLORY!