and i was as wild, even wilder than they

Tomorrow I leave for Budapest!

But today, I had class at noon, as per usual, and found it extremely difficult to drag myself out of bed at almost 11. My roommate left around then for her own flight to Budapest, which was today along with her boyfriend. We're going to meet up when I get there tomorrow. I get to class and we spend most of it going over how to say "this/that/those/these", in French. There are too many variations. On peut dire "ceux", "celles", "celui", "celle", "ce" "ce à quoi", "ce pour quoi", "ce quoi", "ça" (but that one only works when speaking, never for writing), "cela", "celle-ci", "celui-ci", "ceux-ci", "celles-ci" and the list goes on. After cours practique was my final class of phonetiques before Christams vacation, and I got my second test back. My two test scores for phonetiques are both the best grade in the class: 20/20 and 19/20. Bascially, that means I know how to pronounce things correctly.

And can I just add how frustrating it is to be learning a language in which the spelling and the prononciation depends entirely upon which century the word itself was created in? And it's not something that's obvious, or that has a pattern to follow, it's completely random and a matter of life-long memorization. Fun.

(I also find myself melanging (<--case in point) French and English unintentionally in my head or when I write. My spelling ability has gone completely out the window, too. And I used to be a damn good spell-er.)

Aphrodisiac, anyone? I went out early in the evening (as the French are wont to do) for a brief pre-meal. One of the girls ordered a platter of oysters (38,60 euro! oy!) so I was inspired to try them. To sum up: they're slimy, and don't taste horribly of anything other than whatever you decide to put on them (lemon juice and some vinagrette), but they look, frankly, like something you'd find up a troll's nose. I ate one before I decided that was brave enough and hey, at least I tried it, right?

It's bitterly cold here. And by bitterly, I mean the highs are in the mid-thirties. The sun is rarely seen, and there's a nice wind that makes your entire face hurt and is the reason earmuffs were invented, contrary to what my parents probably think. Budapest is only marginally warmer, from the forecast.

I finally got around to giving my host family the card my mom sent me (to give to them), along with a few Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes, which she also sent me a box of. Those conversations are always awkward. I hope they don't think us Americans are gross after eating those. I adore them, but who knows? When I ate the first one after being here for 3 months, I almost spat out the first bite, it was so sweet. I didn't realise how much sugar we put in everything until I got unused to it.