This is a post about carbing up for the big game and traveling.

First and foremost guys, shout to my bae Lauren Reiber, my rock, my best friend, and the girl who continually shoots me down and breaks my heart. Bless her.

Secondly, lets blog.

Friends, bloggers, Mom, and everyone who reads this, I may come back fat. But that's the price you pay in France.  Generally in euros. Bad joke, sorry.  F'real, though, guys. I always ask Brother Chris if he's carbing up for the big game when we go out to eat, but I swear if I don't start doing something all this bread is going straight to my already meaty thighs.  Good thing I walk at least 420 miles everyday. Aaaye. Because I love food we're gonna chat about what I've been eating lately.

My emotions.

Today's lunch might have been my favorite so far.  Hostmom Valerie made fondue.  Oh man.  She used three types of Gruyere and I think some oil, too, I'm not sure, I was too busy pouring melted cheese down my gorge.  Fun fact, we say that in English and gorge is actually the French word for throat.  At least I hope we say that, maybe that's just me.  Whatever. Start saying it, spread the knowledge.  Anyway, we cut up two baguettes into little cubes and sat the bowl of cheese in the middle of the table on a little burner thingie and just took turns dipping our bread cubes.  So good.  Dessert is always good, too. We had fresh fruit frozen in this jello/jelly like stuff and topped it with English Cream. I'm not sure if we have that in America, but its great and sweet and I ate a lot of it with just a spoon. No regrets in France. Dinner was pasta, more carbs.  And so delicious.  I live for eating time here.

I don't remember if I've gone over how a typical meal goes here, so I'm gonna do that now.  If I've already done it, skip ahead or suffer through my poor attempt at blogging.  Our meals typically start off with an appetizer, whether that be puréed soups, half an avocado with shrimp in the pit-hole thingie, or something else, it's all delicious.  Then is the main dish, which is always yumtastic.  I'm not complaining, but they always give me a lot of food, and as soon as I finish my plate they immediately ask if I want more, and for some reason I can't say no.  Woe as me, doomed to eat a lot of food. Shoot.  Our main dishes have ranged from quiche, pasta, fondue, and fish, to cooked cabbage with carrots and beef.  Unlike the Etas-Unis d'Amerique, we eat salad afterwards because it's better for digestion or something. I have learned to love olive oil SO MUCH you guys.  It's just the bee's knees. Also, we have bread the ENTIRE time. There's just a baguette on the table and you cut yourself off a piece.  They also use the bread to wipe the plate entirely clean of any food juices.  It's just great.  Food Fact: Don't put the bread on the plate.  Just don't. Ever.  It always goes beside the plate.  Don't worry about crumbs or a mess, that's not very French.  Just put the bread on the table.  Then we have yogurt. Also for digestion I think? It's just plain old, natural yogurt which normally would be awful, but hostmomma brings out the sugar and jelly to add in, and I'm telling ya, that stuff can be so delicious.   Last is the dessert, big fan of that too. We've had flan, homemade pudding, pastries, that aforementioned fruit thingie, cobbler, and sometimes just plain fruits.  So much food.

Okay the other part of the blog I guess, now. Travels. So our program here takes us on four excursions throughout the semester.  This past Saturday we went to Pont du Gard and Nimes. Beautiful.  Lots of Roman architecture too. First up was Pont du Gard. Picture.

This thing.

So Pont du Gard is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge.  Don't know what an aqueduct is? Educate yo'self: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_du_Gard The coolest thing about this, I think, is that it was all put together by playing Tetris.  Everyone just sat around with the little handheld game and, viola, there it was. Sorry, stupid.  What I mean is that this thing was built sans cement or anything like that. None at all.  They just shoved the stone blocks really close together.  And it's been holding for some 2000 years.  Neat! We also were able to cross it up top.  Guys, get ready for picturesque beauty.

I bet you were expecting a picture of me.

Anyway this thing guys. I couldn't get enough of it.  Someday when I'm not such lazy filth, I'll put up all my photos of the this place.  On to Nimes.

Nimes is a pretty rockin' city guys.  About 150,000 ish, it's definitely smaller than Montpellier, but just as neat, I'd say.  We had some pretty fun shenanigans wandering the city on our own, but the majority of the day was spent on a tour seeing the fascinating places of the city. Like this thing.

Yes that's a frickin' coliseum

This place was pretty neat, but sadly I did not get fight anyone in SUDDEN DEATH COMBAT.  Guys, the tour we went on in Nimes was very informative and our guide was amazing and when she spoke English did so with a British accent, but tours were not meant to last two and a half hours. 

Right before I took this picture, I was sitting down falling asleep.

They still use this thing today albeit not for SUDDEN DEATH COMBAT.  More like the Miley Cyrus concert later this month and bull fighting. Things like that.  Afterwards we saw a 2000 year old building that was important for some reason, but I was busy eavesdropping on the French youths surrounding the area, so I didn't really hear.  Then we went to this beautiful garden with an ancient temple, pretty flowers, some swans, and a tower.  Again, my lethargic tendencies require you wait for pictures, apologies.

Nimes fun facts!

1) The i in Nimes actually has an accent like this ^ but I can only type the shortcut for the accent in Microsoft Word, and as you've realized, I ain't about that life of "extra effort."

2) The actual fun fact: Denim was invented in Nimes.  That's how it actually got its name.  De is the French word for of or from, so De Nimes became Denim.  Whoa learning is cool!