October 24th

Universe, stop trying to kill me with surprises! Damn contrôle (quiz) nearly murdered me. Pop quizzes suck, but they really suck when they are not in your native tongue and are on medieval history terms. Damn. When Elina, Paula, and I saw the little slips of paper in front of us, our faces simultaneously went pale. Our teacher noticed this and told us, with sympathy, to "just try our best." Uh huh, ok prof. I did try my best, and actually I knew more than I thought I did. Still though, why universe why? Can't I have one week without bricks falling down? Lunch was better. Kate genuinely enjoys most of her classes, probably since she's done many similar ones back in Scotland, and also likes her classmates. I'm not too fond of the crowd that shares many of my classes, they are, in polite terms, not hygienic. Besides the sweet woman who helps me in Arthurian Literature, she clearly showers daily. The point of this is that Kate has made friends in her classes, including a new one name Edward. No his last name is not Cullen, thank goodness for that. He is a shortish blond with a really big grin that makes Kate giggle all the time. He's also fun for the rest of us to talk with especially on strange topics. Today's off-topic was slang terms for other nationalities. Ah, one of my favorites. I did learn some things too. Apparently the French, least in Le Havre, don't have any creative or distinct terms for Americans. They often just tack on an adjective, such as stupid or fat, in front of the word American. They need to kick it up notch. Frenchie is typical of the United States and me, but my personal preference is to simply put my arms in the air and say, "we surrender!" Love you France, jk though not at all. The fat promiscuous arrogant stupid ignorant yankee will stand by that one. It was a humorous conversation to say the least. Kate really dislikes a term the French use for the British, and according to Edward it isn't necessarily an insult. The French call the British "roast beef", I have no idea why, and Kate hates it. I mean I wouldn't mind being called "hamburger", it's a delicious food along with roast beef. Maybe it's similar to Brit, another word Kate isn't fond of, which is not an insult but merely an abbreviation of the word British. Whatever I suppose, though I would like it if the French adopted "Hamburger" for Americans, particularly barbecue western bacon burger. Drool.