Exchange in France 09-10

This morning I made a laundry appointment for 8:00, my alarm went off at 7:30 and I fell asleep and woke up again at 8:16! oh no! so I went to the front desk to pick up my laundry token and soap and the secretary just looked at me, pointed to the clock and said: "you're 20 minutes late" What am I supposed to answer to that? So I just said "uh yea, sorry" (all this in french of course) I thought they were going to tell me I couldn't do my laundry anymore, sometimes they can be kinda mean. But this morning was my lucky day I guess because the secretary just told me to wash on a short cycle so that mine would be finished in time for the next person to put their stuff in at 9.
When you make a laundry appointment you get 2 hours, one hour to wash, one hour to dry. So I put my clothes in the dryer and came back , and they were still mostly wet, but the next girl needed to dry her stuff so I just took it back to my room and started hanging it anywhere I could find places to hang things off of, and since I had seen other students do it I hung some of my shirts on hangers and hooked them out the window. but of course a few minutes later the wind blew one of my shirts out the window, and I had to run outside and downstairs to go get it. oh dear.

I had history class this afternoon, the class is called French History and we are studying the revolution, which I love. Today we talked about the royal family trying to flee France and getting caught and punished to death for being traitors to their country. Then we covered "la terreur" where anyone who was suspected of being against the revolution was sentenced to death by guillotine without even a proper trial. The prof was telling us how some people would accuse their neighbours of being anti-revolutionist even if they had done nothing wrong, because if you turned someone in you would be rewarded by being given their land or other possessions, so people would turn in their neighbours just to get their possessions. I think this is crazy, I can't imagine an entire country living in the fear of being sentenced to death for addressing someone improperly when you met them in the street, or just because your neighbour thought you had a nice piece of land that he would like to own.

Walking home with the other students after class I ran into Eunice. She is a student from Ghana studying French as a second language for the year too. I met her at Agapé and she is just so nice. We always speak in French together even though we both speak English better, so it is good practice in French and we help each other out. We are going to meet on Monday after my class and before hers just to spend time together, I am so happy and blessed to have her as a friend :)

Tonight Rachel and I cooked and ate dinner together. I stir-fried some spinach, green peppers and carrots with garlic and put them in a wrap, so easy, and so good. It is always much more fun to cook with other people than alone.

Today I am thankful for all the friendships I have formed so far, and for all the friends I have at home who send e-mails and facebook messages and letters, and am looking forward to all the people that I still have a chance to meet. I am also reminded to slow down and make time for others, sometimes just a smile or a hello makes all the difference.