"J'ai froid!"

This is what I posted on facebook for my friends to see. It's an easy copy/paste posting, ya? =)

Salut!
France is still a slight culture shock. It's werid not being able to talk to people. We spend a lot of time avoiding creepy dangerous people. lol. I mean, we're three college girls walking around at night in a big city. We watch our backs. During the day there isn't a ton of interaction either. I guess I'm used to the peace-lovin' hippies of Eugene. People will hard core walk into your shoulder and let out a slight "pardon." Let's just say one of the first words I learned here was "bouge." aka "move." lol

I've had tons of fun hanging out with Molly and Amanda! They've been super sweet and have taken a lot of time to explain things to me. patience.

We went to a holiday market yesterday. I had "vin chaud" which is a warm sweet red wine. It was really good. Molly bought warm chestnuts. These were serious treasures. It was SO cold. "J'ai froid!" aka "I'm cold!" Plus the metro was down so we walked almost the whole way there. Thank God for the tram. It was hilarious because at this holiday market they kept playing Disney songs in French over the loud speakers. lol. I sang to them. duh, I mean, c'mon... It's me. I do these things. I stuck to my charished English versions. =) I'm sure the French found me SUPER annoying. lol. whatev.

I'm here sitting on Molly's bed. She's cutting her friend Clair's hair. She's really nice too. She's from Corvallis and goes to UO. We're opposites! Speaking of her name though, she probably has it easy since Clair(e) is a French word. People can't say Molly, Amanda, or Hollie. Molly even spelled it out to the starbuck's guy and he didn't get it. lol. oh well.

Anyway, this is getting long. Molly has class 'til Thursday and then she's on break. We're gonna have a Christmas dinner with some other American friends and then we'll head to Paris for New Years. AHHH!!!

For now, we're relaxing at home. I'm totally chill with that though. I keep sleeping 'til like 1pm. Holly, I probably make you proud, eh?

Love you all!
hollie

"C'est pas normal!"

BONJOUR!
France is beautiful. The people here are interesting. haha. Some are very very nice and some are intense.
I was here for about 20 minutes before a lady got out of her car and started yelling at my friend in French. We were walking home from the bus stop. I had JUST arrived, and I was going to Molly's house for the first time. A lady drove really close to us, as most people do. She was driving like she was trying to hit us though. She sped up in front of us. And as most people do here Molly and Amanda flipped her off as she drove off. Then Molly says "Oh shit. She's backing up!" She floors is in reverse and tries to hit us again. Mols stuggled to get my huge bag out of the road. The lady stomps out of her car and get's in Amanda's face. "C'est pas normal! C'EST PAS NORMAL!" aka "That's not normal!" Though whole argument was in French and I had just arrived so I didn't catch much. Basically the girl freaked out 'cause we were in the road and they freaked 'cause she tried to hit us. Amanda was like "trying to hit us isn't normal!" The chick pushed Amanda and they started to fight! I was just standing there thinking ".... oh ... my.. gosh." She scratched Amanda's eye and ripped her contact. Poor thing. A taxi was honking behind her car so she had to leave. It was crazy. Mols and Amanda have loved telling the story though. They're like "why didn't we beat her up?!" They say if we see her again (which I doubt we will) that they wanna jump her. ha. But they said they don't think they'd recognize her. She was kinda average looking. Anyway. That's a story. lol
Many people can tell we're American before we say anything at all. They'll start talking to us in English. It's kinda crazy, especially since I WANT to speak French with them. I'll say "Oh, Bonjour!" and they'll say "hello!"
I'm in the city of Lyon, and it's very beautiful. It's the third largest city in France. It's known for their amazing lighting. Buildings have gorgeous lights shooting up the sides and statues are beautifully lit from the back. It tried crepes with Nutella. SO AMAZING. Better than I thought since I've had nutella at home. We went to a bakery and got quiche. Best quiche I've ever had.
I got here just fine. My 10 hour flight was killer. I met a really nice boy from Portland in Germany. We were on the same plane over. He was headed to Romania. He had the accent. He was super cute and we talked for awhile. He almost missed his flight but he kept walking with me. =) His name was Octavian and he was 21. I was able to find my way around the airports. Everybody working them spoke English, and I was able to use a little French to communicate with a French man to make sure I got on the correct bus. He was really nice! He was a little old man and he put my bag under the bus for me. =) God was totally looking out for me. I was afraid of language complications, but everytime I needed help there was a nice stranger there for me.
I slept the whole night last night! It was great.I couldn't believe it. I went to bed at 10:30pm and slept 'til noon. lol. I also took a tylenol pm though. That makes more sense, but they don't always work terribly well on me. I guess it did this time. Molly and Amanda and I had been going around Lyon all day, and with traveling and the time difference I was getting tired. Luckily we went to a brand new Starbucks. It's a new thing here, so it was very busy. Amanda is Molly housemate. She goes to UO too. They have three French housemates too. They're really nice, and when I don't understand they'll translate.
That's about all for now. It's getting late here. We're gonna head out and maybe grab some dinner. Amanda is nice enough to let me use her comp while she's in the shower. I'll have to add pics later! bye!

LA - Track 02

11-18-07

LA weekend is over. It was really nice. I NEVER realized just how anti-god Cece's family is.... I guess I need to pray bigger, huh?

I'm @ LAX sitting on the ground with my back against the wall. It's almost noon, and my flight leaves @ 1 for San Francisco.

CRAP. A girl just walked by wearing my shirt. I hope it looks better on me... lol. No joke. I'm such a sloppy/lazy dresser.

I miss my roomies. I miss Charis.
It's easy to live w/ Christians. Maybe too easy. Maybe this should be my last year... eh. who knows?

LOL. for some reason being @ this huge airport reminds me of Luke Barton and how I was lucky enough to sit next to a fun guy my age for an 8 hr. flight. Maybe I'll be so lucky this time.

The lady next to me is STILL eating McDonalds. lol. Probably better than my Starbucks. I got it w/ non-fat milk this time. haha. rediculous side-thought. "ADD-focus."

A billion people are boarding for Hong Kong now. Some seats are open but I think I'll stay on the ground. Does that make me more earthy?

Matthew's wedding was nice. simple. cute. That surprised me 'cause both fams are pretty well off.
No dancing. no alcohol. Quite religious. All 3 things individually can piss my bro's and cousins off. All together? Forget about it.

I said at mine it would be religious but it would be 80% dancing and they could drink. They were ok w/ that.

The last time I saw everybody was @ Uncle Michael's wedding. So the question came up "who's getting married next so we can see each other again?" Uncle Michael said "Garrett, unless you get pregnant." lol

My flight is delayed. I hope I don't miss my next flight...

EUREKA! I sat in a new heat here @ LAX and I believe the couple next to me is British! My guess is N. England. They talk like Wallace and Gromet.

The background music @ the airport (when people aren't announcing on the intercom) played "Because" by the beattles w/ an Orchestra. no voices.

people travel in couples. then there's me. God is good to me. *trying to look up, not come off sarcastic*
____________
update.

My flight was delayed nearly 3 hrs. Needless to say I missed my 3pm flight out of San Fran. I caught a 7pm flight to Portland. It's 8:46pm now and I'm waiting for Holly to get me.

Funny Stuff ->

a guy @ LAX caught my attention for wearing a ton of UO stuff. I caught up w/ him and his friend in San Fran. We made really small talk. Before we boarded our flight he came up to me.

"What year are you?"
"Me? -Junior"
"What's your name?"
"-Hollie."
"Hollie...?"
"-Roberts... Do we know each other."
"We're probably facebook friends."
"Oh, we ARE?' *my thought: ha yeah right.* "Do you play on a team?"
"yeah."
"what one?"
"football."
"cool."
Ken Greaves."
"... cool. wait. what?"
"I'M Ken greaves."
"...oh...cool..."

POMPOUS.

his friend played too, but he wasn't a snob.

I told him I went to OSU. lol
______________________

I sat next to this extreme guy on the plain. Previously I thought he looked like a tortured-hippie-soul straight out of Vietnam.
eveything he did was extreme. he didn't slightly slide into my bubble. He was all up in it. He copied my manorisms as we talked.
I kinda like his extreme hippie self. I felt myself having a more extreme nature/manor as I talked w/ him.
He ordered 2 drinks. One of which was black coffee- extreme.
He didn't hide that he read GQ.
He read every page f/ top to bottom. He smelled every cologne sample. When he found he like 1 he shamelessly rubbed it all over himself. @ first he brought it up to himself then he finally just went head first into the magazine. Like a cat to catnip.

I tried so hard to hide my laughter. luckily he didn't see.
______________________

Turns out that British couple was Scottish. Very nice. We talked.

Some highschool kids sat behind us and starting flashing pics. One was like English!
I couldn't help but keep staring back. He must have caught on 'cause the next time I looked back he flashed one of me! lol. "What the-?!"

I switched flights and sat waiting next to another British couple. English? old. Not talky.

I saw another British maroon passport in San Fran.

A girl who borrowed my phone just got off a flight f/ London.

I think th@ sums it up. Still waiting for Holly 9:09.

ttyl!
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Still waiting for Holls. 9:34pm.
She'll be here in a little under an hour. Papa just called.

It's nice to know I have so MANY GOOD FRIENDS. I called Holly, Jen, Candace, and my mom.
Holly, Jen, and Candace didn't hesitate to say they'd be there if people fell through. My mom... another story.

I don't know what's up with th@. I don't really care. W/ the way we ended things @ the airport... I was thrilled to have Holly pick me up. I called her first.

My French exam is tomorrow. I don't wanna study. It's true... You really will take as much time as you're given to finish something.

LA - Track 01

I wrote this entry on my way down to LA the other weekend.

11-16-07
I just want to paint right now. Something sloppy. Quick. Motion... Emotion. Remember in What Dreams May Come? "Can you see this Christy? How 'bout this?"



It's due to emotion. I'm @ the Eug airport. It's almost 5am. Mom dropped me off. We fought on the way here. The whole point was to get the other to apologize and get ourselves to believe it. MAN, I hate the way she fights. This is honest.

Matthew is getting married this weekend. Tomorrow actually.

I don't know what's going on with you-know-who. I think God presented the situation to bring me closer to Him. Ant it worked, didn't it? I'm praying and reading more. It's not how I ideally saw it ending, but closer to my God IS the best thing anyway.

Ian spoke @ OneVoice last night and faith and not being afraid to pray BIG because it's not too BIG for God. When you get to Heaven Gad may say we didn't have enough faith and He would have/could have done more if we just had more. But He's not going to say we had too much faith and that it was too much for Him.
Have big faith.
Pray BIG.

It's Friday. I'm missing school today. It'll be wk9 (Thanksgiving wk) on Mon. I don't feel like going home for Thanksgiving.... *honest again*

I suck @ being social. I left OneVoice quicker than I planned last night because I didn't know how to talk to people. I need to pray about th@. That's not an attribute of God. He doesn't want me scared or sad.

I'm piercing my nose on Monday. Emily Breen and Lauren and I are going. They're gauging their ears. Jessica may pierce her brow. =) I ♥ those girls.

I've thought about taking fall term off next year to work in England w/ Holly. Just a thought. I NEED TO PRAY ABOUT IT. If any term it would be nice to miss fall. That would give me 6 months off for 1 term. Better than being a year behind. I could make up a term. I could stand th@.

I miss Molly. 25 days.

Little stressors here and there. That's why I wanna paint.

God's good though. He's bigger than any situation. My provider and helper when in need.

♥

Lord, let me survive this weekend.

♥ Hollie

5:15am 11-16-07