Vienne, France.

Yesterday Katie, Drea and I took a quick day trip to a small town called "Vienne." It is an ancient Roman town about 40 minutes (on train) outside of Lyon. It was really cute! Quaint and historic; I loved it.

This is me in front of le temple romain d'auguste et livie:



It was literally in the middle of a bunch of stores and restaurants. I guess they just built around it.

This little kid climbed in and was walking around freely enjoying himself.. He got up on the temple platform and I was SO stinking mad because I wanted to do that! But there was an Access Forbidden sign so I was too scared... but, dont worry.. I climbed in ;)





There were two other sites, some ruins and an old Roman theatre, where they still hold concerts!! Here is a picture of Katie, Drea and I at the ruins.





I absolutely love that I can just train it over to an awesome acient city like this. Unbelieveable. I am so blessed.

Franglais.

I love when I see French translations into English. haha.

So I often go to this store called "Monoprix." I think it is a semi-equivalent to Target, but obviously not as awesome as Target. The floorplan of the store is actually very bizzare. The bottom floor is a grocery store, the next floor is a mix of lingerie, woman's clothes and make-up, the floor above that is a cafe and then the last floor at the top is pharmacie items, a bookstore, men's clothes and anything else that you can think of. Haha. I love it because you first walk into the woman's level but as you ascend, you get a mixed smell of groceries and woman's perfume.

Anyway, the highlight of my trip to monoprix the other day was finding a section of shirts, totes and misc. items with English phrases on them. Read these and if you have an opinion on what they mean, let me know, because I am quite confused:

1) Let it Dream
2) Peace Process Needs You
3) Im a Love Result (haha, really?)
4) Trust in Peace
5) Wake up, the World is Burning. (Raising awarness for global warning? I am not sure. lol.)

S0, let us make it clear that I am not making fun because God knows that I suck at French and I probably say things that the French think "Woa, what the heck is this girl saying!?" haha but I thought that it would be fun to share these phrases with all those English speakers who read my blogs.

I hope you enjoyed reading. ;)

Leather jackets? Le dernier cri?

Hello friends,

So I have not confirmed to myself just yet that I am sick, but I have had a terrible stomach ache all day today and I pray that I do not get sick when I am in a different country.. ugghh.. Everyone keeps talking about la grippe (the flu) and I don't want it!

Also, can everyone keep their eyes open for a super trendy black leather jacket that is not too expensive? I'm on the lookout and I promise you that I will be buying one when I am here, but all the ones I have seen are like 109-140 euros and Ms. Mallory does not have that kind of money to spend on a jacket. But I tell you... black leather jackets are le dernier cri. ;)

Okay thanks!!
Loves,
Mallory

jeudi le 17 septembre

Hey!

I know that it has been a few days since I have written a post, so sorry about that. This week just has not been the greatest. I have pretty much been late to class everyday, which is obviously not good and on top of that everyday has been pretty much a fail at school.

Yesterday was the worst day ever. I dont want to give you a play by play, but I will tell you a few of the tragedies. I dropped my iPhone from two flights of stairs, which is now permanently broken. I went to a soccer game for Lyon which was so awesome, but we were an hour late. At least we won. And the best part, I lost my wallet. When I got home I had an email from one of the ladies that I met on Sunday at the bike marathon and she had said that this guy called her telling her that he found my wallet. I had left her phone number in my wallet so when the guy found it he searched it and called her number. Seriously, thank God for that one, because what a blessing to have my wallet found by an honest person. Today I called the guy and picked it up. Everything was in it, and I know my mom is freaking out as she is reading this right now, but mom, I promise that everything is good! haha I went to the guys apartment with one of my friends (a guy) and the man who found my wallet was very nice. lol Dont worry.

Now, everything seems to be back in order. Tomorrow is vendredi =] yay (Friday) and hopefully it will be great!

A plus tard.
bonne journee.

VMA Awards 2009

So, being in France, I haven't seen the VMA awards, but I have read everyone's facebook status's about Kanye West stealing Taylor Swift's limelight. I agree that Kanye is a jerk and that he seriously think's that he is God's gift. He has done so many stupid things on television in these past years which is really unfortunate because he does create some good music.

But aside from his jerkiness. I would like to argue with Kanye and tell him that Beyonce's "Single Ladies" song is THE NUMBER ONE MOST ANNOYING SONG I HAVE EVER HEARD.

I cannot stand that song. And I am so happy that she didn't win.

wow.

HA.

Beaucoup de choses à partager.

Bonjour mes amis!

So I have quite a bit to share with you because the last few days were filled with great adventures!! I have a few pictures so with the help of these, hopefully I can keep this post as short and to the point as possible (No one wants to read a novel on these things).

Alors.

Two nights ago (Friday 11 September):

I already shared with you this day, it was the day I bought that awesome outfit with the torn pants, but this is a photo from that night. Nothing too exciting other than I like it because it is a cute picture of me and Katie. We are on the bus and really excited about it!




Last night. (Saturday 12 September)

I went to this concert in a park, which was free, and it was so much fun!
This band was awesome! They had so much energy and they sang in English, which was a plus! They were a good band to dance to! =] It was super funny because their lyrics were RIDICULOUS and I doubt that over half of the people at the concert didn't even know what they were saying because most everyone doesn't speak English here. haha good times.



This band, Madame Olga, was insane. haha French rock is classic. This guy's name is Sof. I dug him. lol Check them out on myspace to see what I am talking about. They had some crazy cool sound effects with their performance which made ir pretty epic.



Today, my friend Mike and I volunteered to help with the Lyon Bicycle Marathon. We got up extremely early and helped set up a food pit stop for all the contestants. We were there from about 7AM-3PM helping passing out food and drinks. I had a really good time. It was a great opporunity to network, meet some really great people from Lyon and of course practice my french!! =]

Here are some of the bikers.



This is Soginal (?) I can't spell her name.. But we became good friends throughout the day. She was one funny lady. =] I like her. "Voulez-vous du chocolat fondu?!" "Je vais faire un petit sandwich du chocolat!!" Haha There were chocolate bars for the particapants, but the sun melted them, so she was yelling out to everyone if they wanted "Chocolate Fondu." haha



After the marathon, a few of our new friends (Soginal, Pierre and Louisette) took Mike and me to look around the Hotel de Ville area. We went to this flee market where I bought 4 Disney movies in french, Harry Potter 1, 4 and 5 in french and a Babar book in french of course ALL for only 7.50 Euro. Such an awesome deal/day! Then they took us to probably one of the coolest cafe's that I have been to. The interior was just really chic and the ambiance was way chill. I liked it a lot.

Well that was pretty much the end of my fantastic day.. I mean, there were other really exciting things, but too small to add to the blog. I hope that you all had a fantastic day today as well! And until my next post,

Bonne Journée! (which I learned the true significance today!! woop woop!)

autographed,
-Mallory Venema

Comme une mère française

So my host mom, Zoe, Maria and Odille all went out of town this weekend (Not all together, but separate plans.). I am home alone, and it is not so bad. Today, I have been very productive and not even half of the day is out yet. I am calling myself today a "French housemom." =]

So my friend Katie stayed the night last night and when we woke up, I made breakfast for the two of us! I don't know if I have told you some of my favorite things about France yet, but I absolutely love that we sit at the table every time we eat and I also love that water is served in bottles. Anyway, of course, when I made breakfast, we sat at the table with our toast, jelly and coffee. It was the cutest thing and I loved it. After we ate breakfast, I cleaned my room to look pristine and then I have been doing laundry all day. I just got back from the grocery store, which let me tell you, I handled like a french pro! =] When the lady told me the total, "Dix-sept euros dix-huit," I was like "oui, voila. Vignt euros dix-huit. Merci! Bonne journée" So great! =] Now I am eating a delicious salad for lunch at the table with my carafe of water. I wanted to travel into town today to find a nice flee market or farmers market, but I didn't get the chance to.

Yesterday, I bought the greatest outfit at H&M. I don't have a picture to put up of the outfit yet, but just imagine this, black spandex that have horizontal tears running up the leg. YES! haha If any of you watched this last season of SYTYCD, you know what I am talking about when I say that they are like the hot pink pants that Melissa wore for Sonya's contemporary dance. LOVE IT. If I get a picture soon, its going up on this same post, so look out!! =]

I hope you all have a wonderful day today!!
Passez un bon week-end alll of you! =]
-Mallory