Out Tonight

Last night, I went out for the first time since I’ve been in France. Because I live in the suburbs, being downtown at night requires a couple of bus rides to get there and a taxi to return, so I hadn’t bothered to do it before now. One of the other exchange students invited a large group to meet at a bar downtown to celebrate her birthday, though, so I decided it was worth the trouble.
Long story made very short, I waited at the appointed meeting place for about an hour. Just as I had convinced myself that the entire party had been kidnapped/it was all an elaborate ruse to ruin my evening å la Mean Girls, one of the girls called me and told me that they had moved the location to a less crowded restaurant just down the street.
Whew, crisis averted.
After I found the group and reassured myself that I was not the butt of a terrible joke, the rest of the evening was a grand old time. The nightlife in Tours is surprisingly good; I’ll definitely try to go out more regularly now.

Today was a typical relaxing Saturday. For lunch we had a torte of Martine’s invention with leftover onions, corn, rabbit, chicken, rice, carrots, and whatever else was in the fridge. Sounds like an odd mixture, but it was divine!
After lunch, Simon, Martine, and I went on a bike ride to the library and our favorite boulangerie (bakery) for bread.
I hopped on Laurent’s grandmother’s bike for the trip, and we soon found out that the brakes no longer function on the antique cruiser. Thankfully, the ground was flat enough in most places to just put your feet down, and such inconveniences were no match for my natural athleticism. heh, heh. But really, though, I was proud of myself. I only committed one major French traffic violation and ran into two inanimate objects. That might be a record for me.

After a yummy dinner of stir-fried veggies and rice, I decided to try my hand at a movie en français. It turns out, not surprisingly, that Forrest Gump does not translate well into anything other than deep Southern English, but I loved it anyway. Next time, though, I think I’ll pick a French-made movie rather than a dubbed Hollywood make like I’ve been doing lately. Gotta learn the culture, too!