We got to sleep in an extra half an hour this morning! Yay! I finished packing after breakfast [I'll miss the hot chocolate], and dragged my suitcase down the three flights of stairs in practice for the metro ride this morning. Shannon and I were actually downstairs early, but that was ok. Our group was leaving last [we were all staggered out so that we didn't all take the metro at the same time], so we had time to kill. Carlos took us across the street to the church across from our Auberge because the organ player was practising for Sunday. It was so beautiful to hear organ music. And then the choir practised as well. So pretty. I couldn't decide which was better.
Getting onto the metro wasn't as hard as I had initially thought. We were told that we would have to lift our bags shoulder height to get it past the metro doors that only open with a pass; they wouldn't actually fit through the narrow doorway. But fortunately for us, the lady at the counter opened up this section and we just pulled our bags through. The ride wasn't bad either. It was early, so the metro wasn't packed. Nothing could be as bad as the ride was yesterday; we took the number 4 line, and it was pink coded, and the evilest one. It was so crowded, and hot... but ours wasn't today. After travelling to the train station, we had to wait around for a long time [two and a half hours or so] because our teachers just wanted us there on time. We had time to kill, so Morgan, Shannon Lisa and I commenced our quest for a bank machine. They all weren't working. I bought Cosmo in french [Couldn't find any other good ones in french], we bought our baguette sandwiches lunch, then we were back to waiting for our train.
Once on the train, it was four hours before we got to Mulhouse. Shannon and I were scared to get there; our past experience with Marie and Aude was not good. We hoped they had changed by now. Because we were scared, Shannon did my hair and makeup [she needs to do things with her hands when she's apprehensive as well] and I wrote a lot in my journal. She did her hair and makeup as well. Soon [too soon] we arrived at the train station. We got so nervous. We were not too bad though, because we were told that we were walking to their school, and they were meeting us there, instead of at the train station. But it wasn't true. They were at the train station waiting for us. Well, Marie was, that is. My partner, Aude, wasn't anywhere to be seen. I did meet her mom, [Isabella] though; apparently Aude was on vacation and was coming back that night but not in time to pick me up. Her mom looks just like her. We didn't go to the school because she had to go home and cook dinner before picking up Aude, so we just went to her house. She lives two minutes away from the train station. So I met Aude's family and guests. There were around twelve of us in the house. A bit overwelming, but everyone was nice. They didn't think I could talk a lot in french, so they spoke english to me before they realised I understood french pretty well. I settled in, then went with Aude's dad [Vincent] to the train station to pick her up. That was nerve racking. I didn't know how she'd react to seeing me again. But she smiled and we did bises and it was all ok. She had just come from a skiing competition in Switzerland.
Supper was good; we had a Switzerland dish it seems, potatoes and some sort of sauce, and cheese on top. Good cheese. It was really good, and I'm not a potatoe eater. After dinner, we headed over to a firehall for one of Aude's friends surprise birthday party. His name was Jo and he was turning 18. Even though the french can drink at any age, turning 18 is still a big deal; it means you're legal to drive. So Jo's friends decided to throw a party to celebrate this. He thought he was getting called in for a break in at the fire hall [he's a volunteer fireman] and so he was all dressed up in the uniform, wielding an axe when he came in the door. It was funny. Shannon was there; we felt out of place because we only knew our partners. Everyone kept looking at us because we weren't blending well; we were speaking english, and it's not like they hadn't noticed that Jo didn't know who we were either. But by the end of the night, they knew us as les p'tites canadiennes, because that's what they called us after learning where we were from. We had a great time, talking to Mulhousiens, and dancing, and meeting people. One of the people that we met that stands out the most was an 11 year old, Alime, who was convinced he needed to teach us how to dance properly. Shannon was apparently a good student, whereas I was not. He became so attached to us, it was so sad to say goodbye to him. I did however see him again. The party went late, but Shannon and I got a ride home with Marie and her dad because my partner wanted to stay a bit later. But I had to go home to get sleep.
