After my quite depressing post yesterday, my day took a turn for the better once i returned home for dinner! after eating a DELISH meal of porkchops and various other things, the singing group that my host dad is in came over for their weekly practice.

He is in a group that meets just to sing for fun, and it is lead by a professional singer who performs at the Opera Comedie here in Montpellier. They INSISTED on me participating, making sure to point out that it does not matter how good you are, because they sing just for the enjoyment of it.

I joined in, and it was actually VERY fun! They were singing mostly songs in English, so I would explain to them in French what the words they were saying actually meant.

I could not stop laughing because it was a very funny group of people. First of all, let me say that they start off the practice by sitting around and having a few drinks because it helps them loosen up, haha.

There were 3 ladies who were very sweet, but took the practice quite seriously. The 3 men were the funny ones. One was VERY old, his name was Claude. He had to take a smoke break in between each song, and they would yell at him to hurry up. Another man could NOT sing without snapping his fingers and tapping his foot, and when he did, he was off-beat 90% of the time. The last man was my host dad, who thought he was putting on a show. He sounded like a reverend from one of the huge southern baptist churches, shouting the lines of the song after theyd been sung.

It was overall quite an amusing scene, and they ended up staying for a few hours joking around, then singing a song, having another drink... I loved it! So mom and dad, I bet youre happy to hear that I went to bed in much better spirits :)

Today, I went to the doctor which was interesting because he did not speak english...apparently I have some bad allergy to something I ate. He gave me medicine for the next 2 weeks, so hopefully itll all be over soon!

Tonight, after dinner, I am meeting up with the group to go out, which should be fun. The night life here is pretty lively--my host family seems shocked that I dont go out on school nights, because apparently that is normal here.

Tomorrow, we are going to Avignon and Nimes, so I have to wake up VERY early. I have a project due next week on Avignon, which is convenient, because I will be able to use all the pictures I take!!

On Sunday, we are going to the Mediterranean coast ALL day :) I cant wait!

CIAO!

and mom, read this to greg for me: g-man, you would not believe their version of "tato" salad here. it is mainly green beans, with tomatoes, eggs, and chunks of potato in it. You spoon it on your plate and THEN put a SPOONFULL of mayonnaise on it. Its VERY different than moms potato salad. Ill have to make it for you when I get home because it is actually very good!
Oh, and they take their "tato" salad seriously, the way you do...it is the MAIN course. No sides needed :) love you and hope you are feeling better!