Day 8

Good morning.

I played around with taking black and white pictures yesterday, and it felt good to try and be creative with photography again. I feel like I've just been so overwhelmed with photo opportunities that I just look and shoot, instead of taking a little more time to compose a more-than-average photo. I worry that if I don't take a picture right away, I'm going to miss it. I really need to get over that seeing as I still have another 7 weeks, and all of these buildings that have been here for centuries aren't going anywhere anytime soon. It's a little silly that I think about things like this. But, it was a neat process to go through since when I slowed down with taking pictures, I found myself re-finding the small things that I've always liked the most.

For example, just like back home, my favorite part of the day is the morning when I have a cup of coffee and read. Only here, it's usually journaling or blogging.



So it was a fun little project, and throughout the day I'd pull out my point-and-shoot and try and capture the details of my experience, instead of just the "big stuff."

I walked around with some of the same girls and another yesterday. We went across a bridge to a little island and visited a graveyard, which are a lot different here than in the U.S. Everyone was more or less above ground, and the decoration was much more elaborate.



And then dinner that night was interesting. We had a cold soup-like dish, which more or less consisted of tomatoes, onions and other finely cut up vegetables with lots of spices. It was more like a paste than liquid. Afterwards was pasta, which was fantastic. And I had crème brulé pudding for the first time for dessert. Yum yum.

But my favorite part was watching the heightened bickering at dinner. For some reason, my host-siblings weren't getting along so great last night. And even though I didn't actually understand most of the time why, I have to admit, it was pretty comical. Though not nearly as comical when, after dinner, Benoit was running around in his red plaid robe, whipping a toy whip, and singing the Indiana Jones theme song. I'm laughing now just thinking about it. I'll never forget peeking my head out of my door to see what the heck that noise was, and seeing Benoit in that robe, whip in hand, leg perched on the stair above him with the other hand on his hip, singing his heart out. Five minutes before this he had been helping me with my homework, which was to read a bit of a comic book in French, and try and figure out the words we didn't know and couldn't find in the dictionary. He was all about that, he loves comics.

It was a pretty lazy day, to say the least. And now it's time for a new one.