"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop." -Lewis Carroll

So, now that I have a clean room, enough clean clothes to last me a while, and a completed French essay, I think it's time for me to sit down and write another blog post.  I will start at the beginning.

First of all, I must tell you how our Wednesday went.  In the morning we had our "American" breakfast.  Most of the American students were there, along with a lot of French students who are planning on studying abroad in America, even at OU.  We chatted with them a while; some of them had a lot of questions about life in the states.  So it was nice to finally get to talk to some French students, but we mostly spoke in English.  Ashley and I did, however, have an interesting conversation with a couple French students about what happened in the area in WWII, which was one of the things we wanted to find out as one of our Wednesday goals.  Of course, the biggest thing that happened nearby was Vichy becoming the capital of the new French government that took the side of the Germans.  They told us that of course there was probably some French resistance in Clermont-Ferrand, but that it was everywhere.  It was interesting to me that they didn't seem quite as enthusiastic about the French resistance as I am and many of my friends seem to be, perhaps because they grew up hearing about it.

Wednesday night, I went with the rest of the American students and a couple French students out to eat at a place that serves food local to the Auvergne region.  I forget the name of the dish, but it was potatoes mixed with bits of meat and covered in delicious cheese, with ham, salad, and bread on the side.  It was incredibly good.  I practiced my French perhaps a little, but we ended up speaking English most of the time.

And of course I must document my experience with sleep paralysis I had the following night.  It is interesting to note that a person can be so affected by stress while at the same time they are having such a good time.  This is certainly the case for me.  When I first got here, I would collapse into bed every night and fall right asleep because I was so worn out from speaking and listening to French every day, and figuring out a new culture.  But this was my first experience of sleep paralysis (at least here in France).  I just remember being awake enough to know I was awake, being unable to move, hearing a really loud pounding noise (my heartbeat in my ears), sensing an evil presence, and feeling someone's hand gripping mine.  It only lasted about 3 seconds, but it was really quite freaky.  I couldn't go back to sleep the rest of the night, but luckily by then it was already six.  So, for those of you who may study abroad in the future, remember stress can do weird things to you, and you're not going insane (lol).  Actually, it reminded me very much of the episodes I had a few times after a major surgery, where I would wake up suddenly, feeling very frightened for no apparent reason.  After some reflection, I would guess that those were caused more by the stress caused by the surgery than the aftereffects of the surgery itself.  But that's another story.

Thursday and Friday I was very busy with classes, having two on Thursday and three on Friday.  Then Friday night, Ashley and two of her French friends, Pathica and Alexandra, invited me to go dancing at the club.  It was a completely new experience for me, as I've never been to a club even in the US (back home I'm under age after all).  But I decided I wanted to get to know Ashley's French friends, and see what French young people do on weekends, so I went.  It turned out to be a lot of fun!  I was a little uncomfortable with the weird, slightly drunk guys who would just come up and start dancing with any of us without even asking, but other than that aspect I had a great time dancing.  We danced for hours and hours (the clubs here stay open till 5am) and never even took a break.  The next day I slept until noon.

Sunday morning (this morning) I went to the protestant church Ashley and I found.  Unfortunately Ashley slept past her alarm and didn't get to come with me.  I was slightly terrified walking up to the church alone, since I was going to a church where I didn't know anyone, didn't know what to expect, and didn't entirely speak the language.  But when I walked in I felt a lot more comfortable, because a couple people came up and greeted me warmly.  I spoke to the pastor, and later when the service started, he announced to the whole church (which was pretty small) that I was from Oklahoma (lol).  That made me a little uncomfortable, but then after the service a woman came up to me and introduced herself.  Her name is Mrs. Bauer and she has four kids, and she invited me to dinner at her house on Thursday.  That will be great to get to know a French family.  I must say, even though the service at this church was entirely in French, and even so kind of different from what I'm used to at home, it just felt like a relief to be in an environment that was even a little bit like home.

So I've spent the rest of today cleaning my room (which really needed it), washing some clothes in the sink (it costs 3 euros to do laundry here!) and writing an essay in French (400 words).  But now I've come to the end of my update, so I'm going to stop.  Until next time!

Two trams rushing past in Place de Jaude

The main cathedral in downtown Clermont-Ferrand, where I went the first two Sundays