LONDON!!!

Well, a little less than a year after first coming to this amazing city. I returned! Of course this time I actually had free time to tour around... Which I did! So much walking over these last few days have left me rather crippled. 

While I absolutely love London I must say 4 days here is just to much for me, of course there is definitely a ton I didn't get the chance to see. But there is always another time to come back and journey more. 

A few important things I have to share would be the second night me and my 2 friends I came with went to find a bar... So we hop on the bus and go closer to London Centre. After passing a few bars we decide that the next bar we see we are going to get off and go... which we definitely did! Found this really really cool looking bar that was described as an Irish Pub (it literally said... "Irish Pub"). So we jump off the bus and go across the street, open the door... and discover it was a watering hole for the local elder men. The average age I would have to say was 50 years old. So needless to say we didn't stay long before we got back on the bus and drove onward. Going closer to the city we discovered that drinking establishments close super early, and we kept getting told "Sorry we're closed". So finally we found a bar that was still opened for another hour, sat, relaxed and had a drink before admitting we were exhausted and got back on the bus and going to our hotel. 

Sorry... got distracted by this Russian woman who is yelling at the front desk. Its rather humerous as her English is more like Rusglish. 

Okay. So the other big event while here was the stumbling upon an anti-fascism rally. Which was more or less a bunch of people yelling about rascism and then playing bob marley. 

All in all I must say that I am very much ready to head back to France. This city is absolutely amazing and has so much wonder and rich history... but it definitely has gotten the best of this boy. 

I found volleyball!!!

Well, I did it. I some how discovered a men's volleyball team/gathering/club. I truly don't know what to call it. But it meets twice a week for like two hours, which is super awesome!!! I also found another day that is from my other college (French Business School). So now I will be playing volleyball 4 days a week. Currently I have played 3 times this week (yesterday and twice today) so I am super sore! My shoulder is going through a little syndrome I personally call Pussidus. Which is a medical term for you wimping out. Another great thing is that not many of the guys there speak English... so FINALLY I am forced into using French.

After the practice (I discovered a better word for today) a guy offered to drive me home, which was great because I didn't have to wait for the bus! On our 8 minute drive to my dorm we had a great conversation in broken french/ broken english. It was great to not have someone to be able to understand what I was saying in English (or completely understand) and having to try and recreate a sentence in my head. Finding different words and putting them in different places to attempt to get what I wanted to say across... and the craziest thing happened. I didn't die, he didn't laugh or kick me out of the car... so I would call that progress. Me like many people who are trying to learn a second language get so stuck on having to speak well and being absolutely sure about every little phrase we speak that we spook ourselves out of speaking. Instead if you just attempt to speak, they will attempt to understand you and you will be able to build off of that experience.

To anyone else who is attempting to learn a language, please just speak with a person who speaks your target language. If you can master just a few simple phrases and understand a few words you will be able to begin speaking with someone. If you can't remember the word, just play charades and they will understand what you are saying.

I hope everyone is enjoying reading my journey in France. I know I don't post a ton, but the majority of it is all the same and sort of boring.... Because I am studying all the time ;) ;)