Meet Ariane:

My bathroom mate who may be small in size, but not in personality. This 23-year-old French girl is one of the funniest, sweetest, sassiest people I know on this planet. No exaggeration. Ariane is a talented singer, songwriter (she had a great song about procrastination coming soon!), dancer, and How I Met Your Mother fanatic. We often have tea and cookies at midnight and watch HIMYM and have conversations about politics and corruption. Many times we find ourselves fixing the world's troubles in the courtyard after hours; other times we just sing Disney songs in the kitchen and reminisce about simpler times. Most of the time, however, Ariane just comes into Nancy's and my room and complains about having to write her thesis. We're past the point of knocking, she just peeps in and if we're both awake it becomes a procrastination party. We'll go from our room to the kitchen for tea time, which does happen nearly every day, and there we stay gossiping and laughing until dinner. Time flies when you live in Holger.

My favorite moment with Ariane happened during the beginning of the semester, back in February. February was cold and dark, and when I say dark I mean we all became vampires for a month. The sun would regularly rise after 7:30 am and it would set around 4:30 pm. In Denmark, that means that the sky would go from pitch black to gray for about 9 hours. We did not get direct sunlight for 3 weeks. 3 WEEKS. At this point, my spirit was down. I was blue with seasonal depression! So, to solve my issues I went to Netto, our closest grocery store, and I bought red wine, strawberries, and Nutella. Then I marched myself to Macke and Annabelle's room (their profiles are coming) and I was ready to have a calm, quiet girls' night. A few minutes after the three of us had set up their room for enjoying strawberries smothered in chocolate, Ariane knocked on the door. We opened up and she popped her head in, just like she does before entering Nancy and my room, she assessed the situation and hurried away. A minute later, Ariane came back to the room with a guitar in hand, and night was the end of my seasonal depression. I was in a room with three strangers and I felt right at home. Ariane sang Here Comes the Sun, and for the first time in three weeks, there was a light that filled my heart and warmed up my soul. I had not felt so at home in a while before that night.

I love you Ariane, thanks for practicing my French with me and for speaking in Spanish to me and for singing with me even though I can't sing. I promise I'll come to improve with you...eventually.