Frohliche Weihnachten

Here's a little summary of our life...

• Christmas is upon us here in Montbeliard. We actually have stuff to do now and it's really exciting. The Christmas market here known as one of the top three Christmas markets in France. We went the first night to see the opening ceremonies where they lite the Christmas lights for the first time. They have tons of different booths where you can buy pretty much anything, petting zoos, Sleigh rides and TWO skating rinks! Oh and there is a ton of food... mainly cheese and sausage combos! Oh and the hot vin chaud...Every year there is a new theme and the spot light is on a different country. This year it is Ireland. All around town there are green lights and sheep and it looks JUST as we imagined Ireland would look like... everytime we ride in there on the bus we forget we are in France. We have one special Irish friend who own the fudge booth. He has taken a liking to Katie although he says that he does not recognize her with her clothes on... scandal. It appeared to be love at first sight as he proposed to her upon their first meeting, even before she purchased the fudge... She'll never forget that lad.
  

• We missed the canadian thanksgiving, however, Mary Elizabeth made some American friends to make sure that she got some dinner on their holiday. Dinner was held at a sketchy apartment in the center but it was great to meet some other assistants. We had quite a feast of a mix of foods because this apartment didn't have an oven either. American Bryan (our hebrew teacher) brought a dish of sweet potatoes and marshmallows (this is not a good tradition for next year). Our french guest even brought some foie gras to try. Sound pretty delicious? Katie is super sad to have missed out on the feast. anyway we did wash it all down with some wine from the franche comte.

• Belfort held an international film festival and we took full advantage of it. We went on 3 different days and saw a bunch of different movies. Some were silent, some should have been silent (not naming any names 'imitation du angel') we really enjoyed sleepy hollow (and johnny depp) we laughed a lot more than the french people reading the subtitles. The last movie that we saw was the best! no surprise there, the writer/director was canadian. It is called 'you might as well live' and was actually hilarious. "easy peasy japaneesy". We even met up with Jewish Bryan. what a treat. The third day we spent 9 hours at the theatre so we stocked up on some movie food. We were tempted to buy some orangina. but wait, they didn't just regular orangina! they had two new flavours...cowboy and indian. miam

• About two weeks ago Katie, Mhairi and Rach went to Strasbourg, known as the Christmas capital of France. They have an even bigger Christmas market that is spread out across the city. There wasn't much to see in Starsbourg other than the market but it was packed. We got some Christmas shopping done and learned a lot about each other, like for example, Mhairi eats an entire apple... including the core... who does that? In Strasbourg they have a a veryyyyyy tall cathedral. Rachel was very proud of herself for climbing to the top. Also there was little village called Petite France and it was the cutest place with the smallest streets, it reminded us of the town Belle lives in from Beauty and the Beast.
  

• Turns out Mhairi has other hidden talents, besides eating the core of an apple, she also cuts hair... sorta. She gave herself a cute little fringe(aka bangs) and so we thought she was legit. Mary Elizabeth bought a "bump it" and we were all really excited but we may have taken it a little too far, about 5 inches too far. We got out the scissors and went to town with Katie's hair... yup, Katie. It's not the worst haircut she has ever gotten but it is pretty good considering Mhairi and Mary Elizabeth (her cheerleader) aren't pros. One side is slightly longer than the other... but we'll call that European.

• Our Indian roomy Anant had a secret. Her mom was looking for a husband for her in Indian, little did she know that Anant had a life...a boyfriend who she wanted to marry. We don't know his name but he is in her phone as 'my life' ahhhhh. So she eventually worked up the nerve to tell her mom...and she was very happy about it and very supportive. So last weekend she met 'her life' in Paris for a few days and when she wasn't back when she said she would be, we were afraid that she was 'Taken' (as in the movie, see what we did there?) So she came to montbeliard with her parents, who are here for the holidays. They are renting an apartment in the center and last night they had us round for some indian cooking. Katie couldn't go because she has the grippa :( So Mary E and Mhairi went for spicy food. We had chicken rolls, rice, different indian dishes and some hot hot chili peppers. Anant's parents didn't speak english but her kept serving us and saying 'eat, eat'.

• Our christmas holiday starts tomorrow so we met up in 'Ireland' for some vin chaud and a secret santa exchange, in the heated outdoor cabin. It really put us in the Christmas spirit and it was the first real 'snow day' that we had. magical.
  

• We are heading to Deutschland tomorrow to spend Christmas with ME's cousin Billy and his family then to Paris to rock in the new year. We'll be back with some stories...

• Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! hope everyone at home has a great holiday! miss you
  

drama-rama

Wine Tuesday was a success. The aftermath was not. So we have these ladies come in to mop and clean the bathroom and such however becuase we asked and begged to have a lock on the door to the apt (i dont think thats a crazy request do you???) they took away the privelege of having the cleaners! What crap right? Anyways it makes me mad, not because we have to clean but because its liek we are being punished for not wanting robbers and rapists (by the way when i went to spell this word the first time i spelled rapper... ) come in as they please! We also didn tknow where to put our garbage bags because nobody told us and hte cleaning ladies usually took them. But Then they stopped becuase apparently that wasnt their job. They freaked out at us because we had a pile of garbage in our apt (as if we liked it that way) adn called us messy and dirty... well we are apparently suppose to put the garbage downstairs in a closet but you need a key. We asked 3 times for a key and they didnt give us one forever so the cleaners KEPT getting irritated with us and leaving us snarky notes about what to do with the garbage because they thought we were just being lazy! So anyways yesterday two ladies came up to our apt to figure out what to do and i pretended not to be here until i heard them complaining about us again so i went out to talk to them and ended up crying haha. They were soooooo irritating. Anyways we finally got the key to get rid of the poubelle. Tuesday night we had a gathering of one extra person and we decided to do some wine tasting. So were were in our empty bedroom/lounge and our neighbour called us to ask us to be quiet. So we moved the shin dig down the hall. We got a call from the same man half an hour after we had been to bed asking us to keep it down. Maybe we were snoring too loudly?? So the next morning we were woken up by crazy psycho lady banging on all our doors saying stuff like 'its not so nice being woken up is it?' and 'i'm not going to wait 10 years for you all to get out here.' so then she started telling us off for being wild party animals. our neighbour complained about us and even said we were the reason that he was late for work! real mature. so we explained that he called us and we moved rooms and then we didn't get a call again until we had already gone to bed. By the way our roommate Anant was able to sleep through our wild party... anyway it was crazy. They treat us like were a nuisance and 9 years old. if the rent wasn't so cheap we would be outta here! We will apparently have to find a new location for Wine Tuesday. chin chin

Katie and Mary Elizabeth:Mennonites

Since we didn't travel that far this weekend, we decided to go on a spiritual journey. Rachel took us to a church that she had been to once for service. It was a special youth service. We were all set to sneak out the back after but they sensed we were foreign. We were invited up to the parish house because one of the womens daughters had done an exchange to England, so of course we automatically had a lot in common. Not so much. She hadn't spoken English in a long time and she was just about to go out the door for a run. Her mom set us up with mango juice and pretzels while we made awkward small talk. At least we both love desperate housewives. They obviously weren't expecting company because they had bras laying out. We ended up staying for a 'quick lunch' which included appetizers. We started with some lettuce, 2 olives and some salmon(which katie didn't eat, because of her small fish allergy), they also served homemade apple juice which was really good! The main meal was pasta, homemade tomato sauce...and hard boiled eggs (the shells were to be disposed of in 'poubelle de table'. Dessert was homemade ice cream and berries. we got some history of mennonites in the area. It was really unexpected but hopefully we made some good contacts from it. They were really great people.

Romantic Weekend Getaways

Our friend/travel companion, Rachel, was celebrating her 21st birthday so we decided to head over to Dijon (that's right, liek the mustard). And to all you Wayne's World fans they also make grey poupon, Holla. The hostel we stayed at was less than stellar. We think Marseille spoiled us because this time around we got a huge whiff of BO mixed with hospital smell when we walked through the door. Anyways we were two to a room and unfortunately we were stuck together (hardy harr). We weren't near the centre at all and had to walk a good 30 mins there and maybe longer on the way back. Highlights of Dijon include:

• The rooves of the buildings were really cool and colourful.
  
• We went to the mustard shop where you could sample some of the mustards. According to our book from the lonely planet "When we walked in tangy odours assaulted out notrils". They had all sorts of different mustards including nut and caramel mustards and PINK mustard.
  
• Then we went to La musee des beaux arts which is known as one of the most outstanding museums in France. This museum was a renovated castle which belonged to the 3 dukes of Burgundy. It was really cool because their tombs were on display among other amazing paintings and breathtaking sculptures.
  
• And of course after a long day of sight seeing we ended the day with delicious crepes! Shocking!
• We got some vin-o and hung out in our rooms chatting away (in french of course mom!) and watching German cops! Then Katie fell asleep and the rest of the gals went out for a night on the town.
• Night on the town: travel time added another few hours to the evening, basically we got real lost. We ended up outside a club and met up with two guys who took us to another one. We had a good time but the drinks were way too overpriced and maybe that's why nobody was drinking or maybe it wasa because you only had to be 16 to get in...
• The next we were all pretty tired (even sleeping beauty) and got up for continental breakfast aka bread. Then we headed back to the centre ville before catching the train.
• When we first got to Dijon we noticed that there were a lot of owl souvenirs in the shops. We found out the story behind these owls by going to a "Notre Dame" church. At this church there is an owl carved in the outside wall. It is said to grant happiness and wisdome to those who stroke it and so now it is all worn down. It was really cool and we all touched it. There are all sorts of superstitions surrounding the owl and the dragon that is right next to.
  

Belfort: Yesterday we took the train to Belfort which is only a 15 mins train ride from Montbeliard. We met up with other language assistants and visited the Citadelle. Belfort is known for the huge Lion carved into the citadelle. this lion was designed by the same guy who did the Statue of Liberty. In our opinion the lion wasn't that spectacular. On our way to the Citadelle there was a huge crowd gathered around for a parade of tanks and army dudes. It was interesting but for some reason our German friends were not a fan! Later on we heard a big bang that scared us half to death, turns out it was the canons going off. After the citadelle we went to a cafe before catching the train back home. We were with people from Germany, England, Austria and Italy and we all thought that this cafe was weird. This cafe was not a typical french cafe. When we first walked in we were not greeted and so we found a booth big enough for us all to sit. Once we were seated a man threw us a coaster and told us to write neatly. Clearly he didn't have the time to take our order himself. Everyone wanted coffee but Mary Elizabeth decided to be different and went for the "Vin Chaud" aka "Hot wine", Delicieuse. It was actually really good, it tasted like wine and apple cider.


P.S. When we were leaving one of the shops there was real hottie waiting outside the door to rate the ladies. Luckily for us we got a "Pas mal de tout" and a "Magnificent".

picture update

We started a second album so follow the link on the right hand side of the page then click on the tab 'simoneakasimone gallery' to see our marseilles pictures! enjoy

also if you want to be our follower...that would be cool! shout out to Katie's mom Cathy who is the only one who really cares...

Who thought we would be wearing shorts in November?

We got paid and we were off. We took a midnight train going annnnnyyyywheeeereeee (well to Marseille because we already had tickets). We were travelling all night and got in early on Saturday morning all set and ready to start the vacay. We dropped off our bags at the hotel adn went for a Marseille adventure. We ended up taking a trolley tour around the city. It was a good time. We ended up at Notre Dame de la Garde. It was an amazing cathedrale that overlooked the entire city of Marseille. Afterwards we went back and did some shopping, don't worry we didn't spend all our moula! After that we had dinner at a restaurant and it was a pretty delicious. That night was Halloween and it was the lamest Halloween we've ever celebrated. France/Europe doesn't really do the whole Halloween thing. We were pretty bummed but we made up for it because we did facials and watch Deal or No Deal in Italiano! It was pretty amusing, especially when the kids came out clapping and singing Crocodillo! We got a good night's sleep becuase the rest of the holiday was going to be out of control!



The next day we dropped off our stuff at thet sweetest hostel around. We shared a room for 6 people with two other people. We didn't become BFFS with these people because one went to bed at 7:30 and the other was a mute. The two of us shared a loft while Mhairi and Rachel shared a bunk bed. That day went to the market did some browsing and then hopped on a boat to the most amzing island and castle in the world. We got to the island explored the caslte. This castle, chateau d'if, was the castle that Alexandre Dumas wrote about in the tales of Monte Cristo. It was built in the 16th century and it was turned into a jail for the protestants, so needless to say there was some pretty cool history behind this castle. The best part of this adventure was definitely the view and the landscape. The ocean was beuatiful and it was really just breathtaking. After all the walking and exploring we went to the Cinemas and then just hung out at the hostel hoping to meet some Austraaaaaaaaaaalians! On our way to the Cinemas we took a ride on an old school carousel. It was romantic. Once we got to the hostel we sat out on the terrace of the hostel and met a few lame girls from the states and a bunch of German Footballers. Then we met Ruben. He is from Holland and talked our ears off about anything and everything, nice guy though. Mhairi and Mary Elizabeth were determined to find some Austraaaalians so they went out with Ruben in search of a bar. Luckily enough they did meet one guy from northern Ireland and a jiu jitsu master from AUSTRALIA, who by the way was rocking a sweet stache.

On Monday we went on another trolley tour through the old city. The train stranded us in a random part of town to take a look at a whole lot of nothing. Then we read in our travel books about a bar that served drinks for only 2 euros. So we found our way there only to find that it was closed. We weren't that disappointed because we were fortunate enough to go through the red light district. There were actually prostitutes sitting outside all decked up. It was kind of scary but really hard not to look at the thigh high red leather (err, pleather) boots, fur vests and black lip liner. Their genders were questionnable. By this time it was getting late so we wanted to head back to the hostel to meet friends. We were hanging out with Rubenski and met his roomates Angie and Mark. THEY WERE CANADIAN, well, Mark was QUEBECOIS, but we guess it's the same thang. We hung out all night talking and laughing. Things turned serious because Mhairi and Mark got engaged! Well not really but they hit it off and he gave her a guitar pick.


Our final day in Marseille was by far the best day. We met up with Mark and the 5 of us made our way to a Museum. The architecture of this museum was amazing and detailed. We went the park because we had some time to waste and we had ourselvles the perfect french picnic. We ate grapes, baguettes, chocolates, cheese, and Mark treated us to 4 bottles of wine. It was a great afternoon follwed by an evening of drinks at Petit Nice. We headed back to the hostel so a game of Asshole and Spoons which after a few more bottles of wine turned into Extreme Spoons. It was an awesome day. We headed out that night at around 11 and arrived back in Montbeliard around 7am.


Heads up about Marseille:

• The garbage has not been picked up in 18 years. There are literally heaps of it everywhere. We even say a toilet in one of the heaps. It's pretty impressive that we only saw one rat the whole time we were there. That rat was at our hostel...
• They have the best baguettes in the world and their crepes are over priced
• The men in Montbeliard aren't nearly as bad as the men in Marseille! They are so aggressive! For example we were walking up a hill and these guys turned around and just said "wow". Then we laughhed in their face and they didn't know what to do! Also we had the pleasure of getting flipped off by a drunken man swinging around a lamp post. By the way, they prefer blondes.
  

Les vacances de touissant!

Well, after three weeks of working we were thankful for a two week break. We kicked the break off with a trip to Besancon for a doctor's appointment in order to validate our Visa. We woke up at 5:20 am to catch the train only to miss it and end up being 30 minutes late for the appointment. Luckily we met up with a couple (Leona and Nathan from Ontario who have been married a month) who are also languagge assistants in the next town. Unfortunately they helped us find the office, it was bizarre! First of all we had to ring a bell to get into the building adn then once we were there, there wasn't a receptionist. A frantic woman came in to the waiting room grabbed our passports and ran away with them. This was normal compared to the time spent with the doc. When we first walked into the office we were told to lay down on the table and he did a little tap on our chest,back knees and then squeezed our arms and ankles. Then he literally pulled us off the table and pointed to the scale to weigh us and measure our height. Next was the most crucial part of the appointment, our chest x-rays. Why, you may ask? We don't know but we have a copy of it. So the doctor's visit was very informative and it really proved that we were healthy and fit enough to teach english. What a relief. Then we went off to validate our Visas so we guess it's official, see you in 6 months!





Then we went to the train station and met up with Mhairi for a fun filled day of sight seeing in Besancon. We started off with some window shopping and then we were off to the Citadelle. The Citadelle was out of control. The Halifax Citadel has nothing on this bad boy. It was IN-TENTS! It wasn't just an old stone wall but it had several museums, a zoo, a beautiful view overlooking the city, and puppets! It wasn't quite a zoo but random animals all over the place. For example, in the mote there were evil looking moneys. The zoo was really cool because there were animals that you don't typically see in a canadian zoo. There were FLAMINGOS and kangaroos! It was so huge that we spent the whole day there. We caught the train back to Montbeliard and ended up running into Nathan and Leona again. Which made for great conversation and debates learning about thier first month of marriage and what a sweet honeymoon they are on for 7 months in France.

lots of laundry and lingering looks

We ventured out today to the only laundromat in the city. 20 euros and 3 hours later we had clean but still very wet clothes! I don't think that this was the big trip that we had in mind when we bought our backpacks but it was still an adventure. We took the bus in town and then trecked around because we didn't know where the laundromat was. When we found it we were disappointed because half of the machines were out of order and as soon as we walked in we slipped in a huge puddle that was half the floor. Anyway we dont plan to go back for a while...

Even though we have already mentioned this, we have to address it again. No matter where we go necks are being broken. We dont think that we look that different but for some reason the french can't control themselves from staring. Today was the worst especially since Mary Elizabeth decided to break out some shorts (it was laundry day) on a day that was slightly colder than the previous days and or course we were wearing our backpacks. The worst was a when we were at the train station and she was given the once over by a lady stading 2 feet away...the lady had an orange mullet in need of a trim, penciled on eyebrows, a bright purple jacket and some choice shoes. Everyone was asking if she was cold and asking everyone around her as well.

femmes femmes femmes femmes

We are doing a pretty good job of finding things to do considering we live in a town that goes to sleep at 8. Some of the highlights have been;

• a super posh ballet in a freezing church where 16 year old girls failed miserably in their dancing attempts
• many trips to the town center to visit the library, the cinemas, shops, bakeries and cafes
• a 'nature walk' around a man made lake that doesn't allow swimming and is under enormous power lines which create a constant buzzing
• we have created our own club in our flat with shiny disco balls, lazer rings, flashing rainbow lights and various collages...and of course wigs for dancing. we would like to thank a certain bar for donating these supplies
• and of course our favourite hangout a hip little joint called 'Barfly'. We first fell in love with Barfly our first weekend in town. Some guys told us to go there but we were afraid that they were going to kill us so we walked the other way...but we ended up there anyway. We didn't know what/how to order so the bartender brought us some mojitos with glowsticks. After we suffered through them we asked for the bill and were told that it was already taken care of. we were skeptical but the gentleman had already left...chivalry is not dead my friends. Round two at Barfly was disco night! We started off the night at home with some 'Old Nick' rhum and 'Jean's Cola'. It was a near disaster when a ghost locked Mary Elizabeth's door and she almost had to go the bar in her slippers! It turned out to be a good night and we got some disco merchandise and great wigs (hot pink bob and purple afro). stare stare stare stare 'allo' stare stare (best pick up line ever)

-> So in apartment news...we finally got a lock on our door (ps mom we didn't have a lock but we do now so don't worry) and there is talk about getting an oven! well toaster oven but we'll take it. We have a new roomie for a few days, Marcus, Becky's boyfriend. No Problem! He reminds us of Andre the Giant "anybody want a peanut'? We've been working on our french while competing against each other in really intense UNO games. Katie was very romantic yesterday and bought her boyfriend (M.E.) some beautiful pink flowers. We spent the afternoon crafting a vase a la collage de sunny D container. Then shared in a romantic dinner (merci katie). We are definitely roughing it considering we had to wash our knickers in the sink!

-> We are going into Besancon on friday for our second trip to meet with all the language assistants. It is nice to see another part of france and hopefully we will be doing more travelling soon! Our first break is October 24th.

LOVE - ask katie about this

school house rock

For the past two weeks we been observing classes (ish). The teachers have been giving the students the oppotunity to ask us questions in English. We have gotten some real gems such as;

• what is your name? (this actually gets a big laugh when they hear our accent. ps katie is now known as 'Kelly' and Mary E is 'Mary-Elisabit')
• do you like maple syrup/you ahh like pancake?
• do you want to learn how to do a french kiss?
• do you think french men are beautiful/do you prefer france or canada?
• you have big teets! (comment to katie...)

-> Katie is the language assistant at Le Grand Chenois (which is a short walk from our flat). The staff are a rowdy crowd and we saw this first hand last tuesday when we went with them for a bowling night. It was a classy spot (star bowl) and we had dinner (various cold salads, sandwich meats, baguettes, cheese and radishes) and some wine. It was pretty fun when we got the double kissing total strangers down. There was one monsieur who had some mad scruff who double kissed every person there. All of the students smoke and it is a bit of an obstacle course to get through them in the morning. Katie feels important because she has her own keys and even a 'pigeon hole'. We all feel like the teachers are not very accomodating toward us, sometimes we feel like we are in the way or they can't be bothered with us. Katie feels unwanted (but not by the students). Anyway things should improve when we begin taking our own groups. When it comes to lunch time steer clear of the caf at Le Grand Chenois. Katie thought she was getting a pastry...turns out it was fish innards yum yum. (sidenote: last week katie again thought she was getting a pastry and it was cheese...i think we will work on that with her)

-> Speaking of fish, Mary Elizabeth had a ballin' lunch at her school, Lycee Armand Peugeot. There was a special lunch for her and Becky, the german assistant. So there was a little speech then we all had some scotch and cheetos, then for lunch we had shark! Ferocious! and crepes as well. it was a great french lunch! School is going pretty well for her, she is also excited to start her own lessons. It is about a 25 minute bus ride to get there. The school day is very different from Canada. Classes go from 8-5:30. death. However, we only have to work 12 hours a weeks so we can't really complain.

La Vie en France

We are pretty settled in now and we are living with three other language assistants: Becky from germany, Mhairi (Mary) from Scotland and Anent from India. We all get a long pretty well and we've been getting everything ready for the schools and exploring the city. Some of the highlights in Montbeliard include:

• the Cinemas that shows foreign movies from the 60's. It's really different from the theatre at home. There is no concession stand BUT luckily there is a popcorn machine and a vending machine. We watched an Iranian movie with French subtitles...jealous?
• We've been to a few cafes and sandwicheries. The prices are a bit higher than they are at home, a bottle of coke costs about 5 dollars. The other night we went to Buffolo Grill for supper and before the waitor brought us our meal he brought out a delicious urn of popcorn... it was quite nice.
  
• A short walk a way from our residence there is an equivalent of a superstore. We bought cheap wine for 2.50 euros and made a night of it. Half the store is actually baguettes and cheese... but they don't seem to have ANY peanut butter! And they have an insane amount of sweets.
  
• Mary Elizabeth and Mhairi were feeling quite adventurous yesterday and went and got some piercings. Bad ass.

We are living on a campus of a technical school so the students are between 16 and 21. Eighty percent of the student body are boys. We feel really foreign because the stares are unbelievable. Yesterday the five of us were walkng and we actually got hissed at.


As for the actual reason we are here, Mary Elizabeth had her first day yesterday. She got to observe a few english classes she might be working with. The students asked her a few questions and when she answered them they literally gasped at her accent. Katie finally got a hold of her contact yesterday and will be starting on Tuesday. Side note: He didn't pick Katie up from the train station and failed to contact her or reply to the numerous e-mails she sent him.

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Getting There

Allo, Bonjour!

We left Charlottetown last Sunday and had an eventful flight to Montreal. It was a near catastrophe as Katie threw up her rocket chips. We got into Montreal, had a quick sponge bath and we were off to France. The second flight was much more enjoyable but when we landed we were in for quite a workout. To make it to Montbeliard (Our final destination) we had to first figure out the trains and then figure out how to pull, drag and squeeze our luggage onto and off of the train. Actually Mary Elizabeth destroyed one of the ticket gates because she couldn't get sumo bag through the doors.

On our first subway there was a guy who passed out a piece of paper saying that he was deaf and showed us trinkets he had for sale if we wanted to buy them. And then there was a guy who strutted through with an amp and busted out some sweet tunes like our fav, La Bamba. Then he went asking for money. Anyways we arrived in Montbeliard and tried calling our contacts. Mary Elizabeth's showed up within 30 minutes and welcomed us with the tradtional double kiss. That may have not been the best way to greet us becuase we had been travelling for many hours (And someone had barfed...down her shirt...yum).

Nadine took us to our home away from home. We are staying at a residence at a lycee for 53 euros a month, BALLIN! Luckily we are right next door to eachother. We got ready to go to sleep in our bed straight out of the 70's. Katie got all snuggled in and heard a crack and BOOM she was on the floor. Basically what happened was her mattress fell right through the box spring. And as our German roomate put it, it was Kaput! So she spent the first night sleeping on the floor.