Me: “It’s one o’clock. We could go back to the hotel now.
Manieka: “Do you want to do that or...”
Me: “Eh, we might as well go to Germany.”

“His highness can mange-moi.” -Manieka, about the really rude Frenchman we asked for directions.

At lunch one day, before sharing food...

Senan: "Have you been tested for cooties?"
Brian: "Yeah, I had my cooties shot two years ago, and they're good for about five years."

"It's hard to tell if we're on our way home or off to some tangent field." -Jodi, after we were on our way home one night from a field trip where we'd made about six completely random stops.

Jodi: "....showed them where we live, that kind of thing."
Me: "And no, Illinois is NOT near Pennsylvania."
Ryan: "There are Americans who don't know that."

"Katie, what is the difference between a wild animal and a tame one?" -Mrs. Dr. Lastinger, while Katie tried to convince her that a cow was a wild animal so she got points on her quiz.

"It's kind of like a cross between hip-hop and rap. Call it 'gansta hop." -Brian, on my new rap CD.

"We should have had tee-shirts made before we came here that say, 'I'm not a tourist. I CAN speak French." -Brian, after the eighth person started speaking to us in English after we addressed them in French.

"The conversation went from, 'What did you have for lunch today?' to 'What's a Mormon?' Do you think Valerie told them the vegetarians are Mormons, because vegetarianism isn't very accepted in France?" -Jodi, about the dinner conversation one night.

Me: "Hey, guess what's exciting?"
Senan: "Everything?"
Me: "No, besides that."
Senan: "What's left?"

"You have no idea. This is like a candy store." -Katie, after Senan asked for the fourth time how long they were going to continue looking at the make-up.

Me: "If you were Mrs. Dr. Lastinger, where would you hide?"
Senan: "From us? The first place I could think of."

Senan: "I don't want to sit there and have you stare at me while I eat."
Me: "I wouldn't be. I'd be sitting there harrassing you."
Senan: "It would be worth the money not to have that happen."

Katie: "Well, in the morning, the dad takes us in the clown car."

Jenn: "What's the clown car?"
Katie: "It's about thirty-five kids... And me and Jenn."

"The reason I wanted to take the girls home was to figure out where they live, but as it turns out... They don't know where they live." -Jodi, on taking the girls home.

"Who cares?" -Mrs. Dr. Lastinger, when they kept talking and talking and talking about the fish and we couldn't leave, even though the tour was over.

On Senan's living arrangements...

Jenn: "So do you live there or what?"
Senan: "Allegedly."

"I wouldn't feel bad about a place with dead humans unless they were piled up in buckets and ready to be sold." -Jenn, during a conversation about the butcher's and the poissonerie.

"Do you ever get the feeling that he's having a kick-ass time and we're just here to get the group rate?" -Jenn, on Mr. Dr. Lastinger.

"It's a baby chicken! That's pretty raw if it's not a chicken!" -Katie, trying to convince us that hard-boiled eggs are raw.

"Oh, you speak Sheep? English, French, and Sheep! Très bien!" -Our dad. Don't ask.

"This is kind of like a horror movie. They're leading us off to the slaughter." -Amanda, this morning, in frightening woods that were strangely reminiscent of the Blair Witch project woods.

Mrs. Dr. Lastinger: "So you met a rude Frenchman."
Katie: "Oh, that's a first."

"The message would be: 'vous comprennez, vous comprennez!' No, she's French. She doesn't understand." -Katie, about the rude Frenchman who yelled at us and our instructors at lunch... In English.

When Mrs. Dr. Lastinger was in the church today...

Senan: "Saint Valerie. That's a good one."
Mrs. Dr. L: "Hey, it's not that far-fetched."

When trying to convince Katie there aren't sharks on the beach...

Alex: "...there are only two or three jellyfish."
Katie: "Oh, that's encouraging as well."

"Hey, look. Everybody's in the ocean--everybody. Maybe there aren't really sharks right there." --Katie, about the water two meters from the beach.

Jodi: "We should go for a walk."
Me: "Où?"
Jodi: "Huh?"
Me: "Où?"
Jodi: "What are you 'ewwwing' about?"
Me: "No, Jodi. Où? Where?"
Jodi: "Oh, you were speaking French."

"Hey, guys, look... The poissonerie. Maybe we can still catch a tour." -Katie, being very sarcastic.

About tanning topless...

Jodi: "... I mean, I don't know any of these people."
Me: "Hell, I can barely communicate with them."

"Who cares? Like we can understand what they say." -Jodi, in response to my comment that everyone was staring at us because we were speaking in English.

"Non, j'ai dit, 'Il n'y a pas de besoin.' Est-ce que tu parles français?" (Translated: "No, I said, 'There's no need.' Do you speak French?") -Our mom to our dad at dinner tonight.

"I left this morning with two of my buttons undone and I was like, 'Coming!' Then I looked down in class and was like, 'Oh, look. There's my bra!'" -Katie

And the Germany/Strasbourg quotes...

"Ronnie would be here, but NOOOOO... He decided to go to the Gay Pride Parade instead. Isn't that FABULOUS? Maybe he'll bring me pictures." -Manieka

Random guy: Vous etes francaises? [You're French?]
Manieka: Oui, bien sûr... Nous sommes françaises! [Yes, of course we're French!]
Random guy: "Non... Serieusement." [No, seriously.]

Random guy: "Parlez-vous allemand?" [Do you speak German?]
Manieka: "Non, nous sommes anglaises." [No, we're English.]
Guy: "Uh...Uh... Okay... You must go tout droit... straight... and then you must make the left..."
Manieka: "Oh, à la gauche?" [Oh, to the left?]
Guy: "Oh, vous parlez français?" [Oh, you speak French?]

As though the conversation didn't start out in French...

"I feel like I'm going back to my home country." -Manieka, on the way back to France from Germany. Oddly enough, it was like coming home.

"I may have to pull a Dr. Lastinger and take pictures out the window. I'm sorry, girls." -Manieka, while crossing the Rhine.

Me: "Oh, wait, these [pre-paid envelopes] are only valid in France."
Amanda: "We're in France."
Me: "Oh."

"Well, girls, we did it. We made it to Germany. Now our only task--is to make it home." -Manieka

"I was just checking you out because you look normal... You have baggy pants on." -Manieka to some guy in Strasbourg who was wearing something that did not look like it had been popular in the eighties, like many clothes here.

"Why are they having such difficulties with this? God, men are stupid!" -Manieka, forty-five minutes after the Frenchmen started cleaning up the mess in the street and still had gotten nowhere.

"It's so weird to walk down the street and hear people speak French, then I realize... 'Oh, wait. It's their country.'" -Me, on France.

"It's like an airplane bathroom. You can brush your teeth and be sitting on the commode and still be over the sink." -Mrs. Dr. L, on our hotel rooms. As it turns out, she wasn't lying.

"Yeah, but it's hard for me... They're short, they're little, and they're rude." -Katie, on Frenchmen.

Mr. Dr. Lastinger: "Moles are the closest thing to humans in the animal kingdom."
Katie: "I love this guy. He knows everything."
Mrs. Dr. Lastinger: "And what he doesn't know, he makes up."

Later on…

Mr. Dr. Lastiner: "Well, you know what moles are..."
Cindy: "Yeah, they're the little things that can't see, right?"

After buying some wine and then spilling half of it...

Senan: "How much [alcohol] have you had?"
Cindy: "The whole bottle!"
Senan: "Really?"
Cindy: "No, the whole bottle's on my leg."

On the swans in the moat...

Katie: "Find any more dead swans, Mama?"
Mrs. Dr. L: "Pas encore." [Not yet.]
Cindy (pointing to something floating in the water): "Oh, regarde!"
Mrs. Dr. L: "Non... Ce n'est pas de cygne, c'est un bouteille." [That's not a swan, it's a bottle.]

"Senan, you look like a terrorist." -Katie, on one of the pictures Dr. Lastinger had taken.