Entry 5

Salut! It is a lazy Sunday afternoon and I am relaxing at the Internet cafe. I had a good week. Monday, we have determined, is hike day. We all get out of class at 12:30 so we have the entire afternoon to do whatever. We started in Grenoble and hike straight up for three hours. Around 5pm we reached the top of Col de Vence which is the mountain in my pictures titled "beautiful view". I don't remember the last time I was that exhausted. We hiked to the snow line (first time I've encountered snow this trip). Emma goes to school in Colorado... so she took the lead. She is truly a mountain girl. By the end of the hike I was crawling on my hands and knees to the top, the boys were 20 minutes behind us, and Emma was hardly tired at all. I have never seen anything so incredible. It was really rewarding to make it all the way to the top. We were up there for about 5 minutes before it was time to leave because we were losing day light. We hiked from about 2pm to 7:30pm. Tuesday was Mardi Gras so we went to Matt's host familie's house and cooked dinner because they were out of town. They live in a villa with a beautiful view and big glass windows. Everyone pitched in and helped cook. We succeeded in making a very good meal of chicken, Gratin Dauphinois, and ravioli. Thursday night everyone came to my house to enjoy another home cooked meal because my french family was out of town all week and they said I could entertain people. Friday night we went to our first french dance club. We didn't get home until very late. I can't even believe how late bars and clubs stay open here. The rest of the weekend has been very lazy. We all needed to catch up on some rest. Later today I am going to go to my first french mass with my family. It should be interesting.
OK now for the funny things that happened to me this week. My family is out of town... so I am home alone. The toilet is in a different room then the shower and sink. I locked myself in that room because when I locked the door the lock broke. There is no window, I have no phone, and the door is a very heavy, old wood door. It was so scary. Funny now.... but scary then. Luckily for that night... one of my host sisters had some friends staying at the house because they were traveling through Grenoble. I was rescued by french guys staying down the hall from me. Talk about embarrassing. In french I have to yell... "help me... I'm locked in the bathroom".... oh yeah. It was awesome. I was locked in there for about 40 minutes... was 40 minutes late to school... and had a hell of a time trying to explain to my teacher why I was late. That was the first awesome thing that happened.... the next night... I went downstairs at 2am to try and fix my Internet. I haven't had anything to drink (I have to specify that because the only time this usually happens to people is when they are very intoxicated). I end up slipping because my stairs are different widths and falling all the way down the stairs. It hurt so freaking bad. I laid on the bathroom floor for about 20 minutes trying to keep from getting sick because of how bad my butt/legs/back hurt. Now I have an incredibly huge bruise on my butt. It is dark purple and the size of a pancake. AWESOME. Both of those experiences were not the best, but I hope they amused you.... they are funny now when I look back. So that's about it... next weekend we might rent a car and drive through Northern Italy! That would be amazing... and my mom comes next weekend! I am so excited! OK I'm out! Miss you all! Ciao!