J'ai 21 ans!

Merci for all the birthday wishes! I had a great time :) My actually birthday I spent relaxing in bed because I stayed up late having fun the night before. I also got the most wonderful birthday package in the mail from home!

Yesterday I had eight hours of class... Though not too bad. Our leader, Beth, had a little birthday get-together for me at her apartment between classes. I still have some of the yummy cake in the fridge! I'm glad to be in class, learning new things and keeping my brain entertained.
Some of the students and professors were on strike again today. I believe it's about some reforms the government is making concerning University finances. There's a new law changing how the state pays for schooling an requiring schools to become more financially independent. Because of this the three universities in Strasbourg joined together to form one University of Strasbourg. For some reason people don't like this... I'll try to learn more about it.
So today some of my friends and I went to a Faculté class for the first time. When the teacher arrived she said that she's on strike but is required to be there so she said she was physically there but wouldn't be teaching so we could just talk about whatever we want. So we talked about the States for a while and since she's from Italy she told us about school in Italy and Canada since she taught there. It was very interesting and I can't wait to get the actual class started next week. It's the sociology of cities or something like that...
After we left I realized 5€ fell out of my pocket and I couldn't find it so I get upset about that... then the coffee machine at my money... but I tried to forget about all that because other than that I was having a really great day.

So I came home, watched a couple episodes of 24 and then made dinner! I made pasta and some chicken I started marinating last night. It was really good! Except that I marinated it in soy sauce and some other things so it was kind of salty but I just added sweet chili sauce and it was good :) I was happy to make up my own sauce without a recipe and have it turn out okay :)

I'm not quite sure when my host mom is getting back but I hope soon because I've run out of cooking ideas... at least anything I can make with what's left in the fridge.

I was thinking about the strikes lately and had some interesting ideas. Well the French love to go on strike and it happens all the time. I learned in my culture class they basically go on strike when the government tries to make any kind of reform. But if that's the case wouldn't it start to lose it's power? If the government knows everyone's going to strike no matter what then it won't matter because maybe they're just striking for the sake of striking? The government may just come to ignore it because it's meaningless. I don't know, just my thoughts and impressions, if any people that know a bit more about France and French culture have any responses please let me know :)

On another note I'm getting really excited about climbing! I did a lot of research last night and found some good climbing spots nearby, now I just have to figure out how to get there. I also found out where the gym where my class is so I can make it there next Monday. I hope I can make some new friends and get some great climbs in!

But now it's cake time :) A bientôt!