French bugs...

...must never have tasted Americans before. Because they sure do like us.

I went to the park yesterday with Jenn, and now on my right arm I've got about 7 bug bites all patched together like the little booger climbed into my sleeve and just went to town on my arm or something.

I've also got two giant bites on my leg, but they're older and starting to go away.

I'm not the only one who bugs like either, Peter's got about 4 bites on his hand all in a row and two on his ear. YUCK. I don't think any of us have escaped completely bug-bite-less.

Today was a good day. I spent the night at Jenn's last night since my family was in the country, and she, MaryKate, and I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's and Father of the Bride. We then slept in until 11. Glorious.

I came back to my house and got ready, did some laundry, and lounged around until I finally found the energy to hit the park. I took my French Bible and my new book with me. I found a bench in the shade and settled in for a few hours. Reading the Bible was interesting, although a little difficult. I'm excited to read more. My novel, called Aupres de Moi Toujours ("Next to Me Always"), might be a little hard for me, but I'm up for the challenge. It's written by Kazuo Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki in 1954, but moved to England when he was young. So, the novel is translated into French, not written by a French author. I'm only about 30 pages in, but its interesting so far. The story focuses on three students at a strange boarding school somewhere in England. I don't really understand why the boarding school is strange, and I'm starting to think this book is science fiction-ish. I'm getting a Brave New World kind of vibe. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Jenn, Carleigh, and I then met at Monoprix to buy ingredients for a pasta dinner chez moi (at my house). We bought tomatoes, green peppers, and mushrooms to go with heart shaped pasta! We bought Dinosaurus Cookies for desert. Dinosaurus cookies are amazing. They're kind of like chocolate covered animal crackers, i guess...but 10 times more delicious.

Dinner proved to be quite an adventure. There are only two eyes on the stove top, and its one of those stoves with the comepletely flat surfaces. Well, all three of us are apparently idiots because it took us over an hour to figure out how the stove top worked. For some reason, the burners kept turning themselves off. We did absolutely everything we could. Finally, we tried doing just one pot at a time. We put the pasta in a microwaveable bowl and tried the sauce on the stove. Still didn't work.

But then.

I realized.

We'd been reading the diagram wrong and turning on the wrong eye. These new fancy stove tops have sensors that can tell when a pot is sitting on the eye or not. If there's no pot, it turns itself off. Well, I guess just both pots were just big enough that they couldn't fit on the stove at the same time, so it didn't work then. And then when we tried one pot a time, we stupidly kept messing with the wrong eye.

We all about peed our pants laughing when we figured it out. And then felt really dumb. But, at least we finally got to eat a delicious meal. I'm stuffed.

I'm finishing up laundry, planning to read some more, and then heading to bed. I want to make sure I'm ready for our two week trip, which I know will be exhausting. I am so excited though. Castles, countryside, Paris...how perfect!

But after that, a bit more reality sets in. Real class begins. No more one class a day with trips every weekend. It'll just be multiple classes a day with a potential trip every weekend. A potential trip no longer paid for by Wake Forest. But that's why I worked so hard this summer, to have the money to travel.

My list:
Italy (I'm thinking Florence or Venice...)
Spain (I'm thinking Barcelona...)
Dublin
Prague
Vienna

I need to start planning, and here's hoping I make it to all of them.