And we're in the home stretch!

I am so conflicted - I have no idea what to feel right now, as we enter the 12th week of this semester (as Mme. de Pous LOVES to remind us) which = the third-to-last week of our Nantes experience, and the second-to-last week of class. Shockingly, we're all running around like the crazed college students we are, trying to get all the work done that we are required to do...which is only shocking because it's such a normal part of school, but it's happening in a place where school doesn't really seem like nearly as big of a deal as usual. Also contributing to this is the fact that we literally have had almost 0 work all semester. Other than a few pages of grammar homework, and studying for upcoming tests...nada. rien. For me, at least...but anyway. I'm doing fairly well getting all my stuff done, and I'm not freaking out in the least. But I'm also getting pretty ecstatic to go home. The list of things I'm missing is growing bigger and bigger.

BUT the reason I got all my work done early was because my MOMMY WAS HERE. It was amazing : however, I'm not going to update on that until I have pictures from facebook, all of which she has with her, on her memory card.

Instead - I am now going to update you on our fantastic trip to Marseille. Jade and Cori had gotten there Thursday...and Hannah, Molly and I were going down Friday morning. E.A.R.L.Y. meaning...literally five in the morning. We decided it would be easier (and we'd have less of a chance of one of us sleeping through the alarm) if we were all together, so we stayed at Hannah's house. So our day of travel started at 5 am, we were on the tram by 5:45, switched trams, took the bus and arrived at the airport for our 8:40 flight...at about 6:50. Completely unnecessary, seeing as the Nantes airport was COMPLETELY deserted at that time. Oh well - we took a nap for a little while, until they called our flight. RyanAir is actually a pretty good airline, with highly amusing in-flight magazines and very cute Irish flight attendants. When we landed (after the gorgeous view flying over the Alps), we found the downtown shuttle to the train station and then meandered around and found our hostel.

The view down the street was breathtaking. I love those corners where you just have to gasp, and there are no words. We looked straight down to the 'vieux port' which was definitely the heart of the city. When we get down there, we're hit by the wall of smell - the salty, humid ocean air, mixed with a fishy but fresh and delicious smell coming from the fish market...these people had literally caught these fish within the past hour, at the most, and only about 20 feet behind where they were standing, selling them.


We found a restaurant for lunch, right next to the water, and were joined by Greg - a guy who lives in Marseille, who at some point did a study abroad exchange and stayed with one of Hannah's good friends at home. He was so wonderful, and we couldn't have asked for a better tour guide/photographer/French professor all day long. Also, I would just like to talk really quickly about the whole 'kiss-kiss' or 'faire les bisous' that are such a big part of the French stereotype....just to clarify, it is NOT as easy as it looks, and they actually DO do it ALL the time. Every French person does it differently, so you have the people who actually kiss and then the people who just do the cheek-touch and kiss the air, which completely changes the head angle so you have to figure that part out. And don't even get me started about when you're in big groups - doesn't matter how many people, every entrance AND exit you make means you have to go around and faire un bisou avec EVERYBODY there. Also, if you're sitting down, you either have to stand up to meet the other person who is most likely standing. Or, if you're the one standing, you have to awkwardly crane your neck to reach down and do it to the other person who is sitting...all of which gets amazingly awkward, amazingly quickly. However, I learned in Marseille that faire-ing les bisous is ESPECIALLY difficult when you go to other parts of the country. Greg, upon our introduction, went in for the kiss, but went to the OTHER SIDE than anybody had done thus far in Nantes. Think about it - if you're going in to kiss someone on the cheek, but you go to opposite sides...awkward things start happening, which involve noses bumping, and even, potentially, lips brushing. Let's just say some of these things occurred when Greg and I met, and it definitely started our new relationship off pretty hilariously. But seriously - faire-ing the bisous = NOT as easy as it may look. Just so you know.

ANYWAY: after lunch, Greg suggested we take the Navette out to the islands, as something fun to do. As we had no idea there was a shuttle, or even islands..we obviously took him up on it! For the best 10 Euros I have spent the entire trip, we got a boat tour of the vieux port, and then jetted out across the magnificently clear blue water to first, the Isle d'If, where the chateau is that the Count of Monte Cristo is said to have been imprisoned in the novel, which was pretty amazing. Then, we went farther out into the Mediterranean to the Iles de Frioul, which was a real archipelago of islands, which we proceeded to hike all around, all day long. It was absolutely breathtaking, and the sunshine was absolutely delicious (especially after the non-stop pluie rainrainrainrain in Nantes for a good month now) - we even got a little bit sunburned. On November 20th! Who does that?



We had a great time on the islands, but it was getting a bit chilly (read: about 60 degrees, which was cold after 75 all day long) and we caught the LAST shuttle back to land. We did some souvenir shopping, then headed to the hostel to check in and on to Greg's apartment. We had a ton of fun just hanging out, and he was nice enough to make us a "delicious" bachelor-style dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. But it actually was good, and definitely great company. After, we went to a bar to meet up with some of Greg's friends and watch l'Olympique de Marseille (l'OM - the football club of Marseile) play and BEAT (1-0) PSG (Paris Sainte Germaine - the FC Paris). It was a fantastic time, and of course les Marseillaises went nuts when they won. It was pretty awesome to be a part of all the celebration. After, the metros stopped running so we had to head back to the hostel, where we met our very interesting...I think dedicated and ambitious are good words to describe him, but also possibly a bit morbid? haha... hostel mate, named John from Seattle.

Then Sunday, we checked out of the hostel and headed back downtown to check out the last of the sights. We walked up to the big fort that was at the entrance of the vieux port, which Napoleon built...pretty much, just in case. He wasn't ever even there haha. But it was beautiful, and there was a church up on the hill that was from the 14th century, where fishermen have gone to pray ever since it was built, before they head off to sea. It was gorgeous.

Then, we headed back to town to find lunch, ended up settling on the most disgusting croque monsieurs EVER (probably in all of France - no exaggeration whatsoever) and headed back to the train station to grab the shuttle back! Of course, when we landed in Nantes, it was raining (no surprise there) but it was still nice to be home! The south of France was an absolutely gorgeous place, and shockingly different - especially to think we were still in the same country. There were HUGE immigrant populations, so it definitely had an interesting vibe - much less northern French/catholic/castle-y, but much more Mediterranean/Spanish/North African/Italian/island-y. It was cool to hear some of the history that Greg knew (especially when he told us how big the French maffia was there - who knew?!?) and learning about such a socially and culturally different region. It was an all-around AMAZING trip!

Castle Quest '09

What is this? Two posts in like 2 days? I know - crazy! Now is the only time that I have to procrastinate though, so I have to update now before I run out of time!

So last weekend was Castle Quest 2009. It was one of the field trips that IES planned for us as a part of our program. We did 5 castles in 2 days, and it was amazing. And it was so amazingly French.

We arrived at the buses crazily early. And then we all scrambled on to them, obviously stressing about getting the best seating arrangement, and making it on the "cool bus" - evidently, we haven't really grown up since middle school. The bus ride to the first one was 3 hours long, but mostly spent sleeping. Then, we woke up, and we were standing in front of a giant castle. It was like time travelling. #1 was Serrant - it was where the Duke of (insert name of region here - I forgot) lived back in the day. They lived there until not that long ago (I'm gonna say the 1920's ish?) when the Duke died. His wife, the dutchess, had never had any children, so she decided to sell the chateau to an Irish family - the Welsh's. They were apparently pretty tight with the Queen...as in the Queen of England...so she now vacations there. It was pretty cool.

Then we took off to Castle #2 which was Azay-le-Rideau. It was for sure my favorite. We didn't get a guided tour of that one, so I don't know the background. But the grounds were absolutely beautiful, and we just walked around for a really long time, and explored. It was so beautiful.
We also were taught the Single Ladies dance and some lovely Renaissance dances and played in the leaves and had a lovely fall afternoon at a castle.

Then, chateau #3 was Villandry, which is more famous for its gardens than the castle. They made it into a maze, using all fruits and vegetables. But also, it was only fruits and vegetables that grew in the Renaissance times (i.e. there were no apples, because apples didn't come to France until after then). It was really cool, and also really beautiful.


Then we made our way to the town of Tours where we got to our hotel. We settled in and realized we were starving. Dinner finally came - it was good, but I don't think France doesn't do mass-produced food for 75 kids at once. Then we went exploring downtown Tours! It was a beautiful town, and I really wish I could have seen it in the daylight. But we had a great time, went to an Irish bar and met an Australian couple backpacking across Europe. You know, the usual.....and then Peter and I hung out and had quite the eventful night in my room. Don't worry, it's not at all like it sounds. haha.

Next day, we took off fairly early for chateau #4 - Amboise. This is where Francois 1 lived, who was married to Duchess Anne de Bretagne (who is originally from Nantes - the world was even small back then...probably smaller. ahah) and was also bffs with Leonardo da Vinci. da Vinci had his own palace, a ways away from Amboise, but we could see it from the castle...and apparently there's secret tunnels they used to get back and forth. But da Vinci was also commissioned to paint for Francois 1, which was who he painted the Mona Lisa for. He also died while he was living there, so the Mona Lisa wasn't ever finished, which means the commissioner doesn't technically own it, so the French state came into possession of it. In the Revolution, they destroyed a lot of da Vinci's castle (stupid war) so his tomb was moved to Amboise, where we saw it. It was pretty sweet.

The actual castle of Amboise was also really beautiful. It was still completely furnished from the Renaissance times, but you can rent it out and stuff for weddings, etc. which was pretty cool. Since it was cold, there were fires burning in the fireplaces, and that kindof thing. It was interesting to think of castles as being lived in - but some of them definitely are! We also got a language on olde French while we were there, and the transition from Latin to modern French. Mme de Pous (our grammar prof, who was also our chaperone for the weekend. And is amazing) was very proud of us for being able to figure out even ancient French. It was hilarious.

Finally, castle #5 was Chenenceau, which was huge, the most famous, and glorious. We had a LONG time to explore this one, and there was lots of history. This guy (a king of something, I forget) wanted to build it for his mistress -Diane de Poitiers, but then in the middle of construction, he "mysteriously" died, and then his WIFE - Catherine de Medici - took over, and totally kicked the mistress out. Most of the castle is built on one side of the river, but there is a long ballroom that acts as a bridge over the river too
This room was absolutely awesome, and had a lot of history as well. The castle actually served as a hospital during WWI, and the ballroom was the triage station. During WWII, the owner used it to smuggle people across the river, which was hugely important because (as my host father informed me later) the river literally was the border between Vichy-led France and free France during its regime. How cool is that??
The gardens were also beautiful, and my lovely friends Hannah, Emily and Peter and I had many great HP finds - the labyrinth, and the lake, and Hagrid's cabin...it was an all-around good time. Then, on our way back to the bus, we had the most perfect end to the weekend: a rainbow over the castle.
And it started POURING just as we sat down in our seats (which was awesome, because it had been forecast to rain ALL weekend. We definitely lucked out).

So that's castle quest '09. I hope you enjoyed the history. Since then, I have written a paper on NATO (OTAN in French - if I slip while I'm talking, it's the same thing haha), and pretty much nothing else. But Marseille is this weekend (already! I remember buying tickets and thinking how FAR AWAY the trip sounded!) and then my MOMMY IS COMING IN 9 DAYS!!! We have 5 weeks left, and I'm going to be making the most of them for sure!

My adventures in Benelux!

Omygoodness I have been failing once again! These past two weeks have been jam-packed with both work and play and it's been fantastic. In addition, I only have 5 weeks left here - and only 3 of class! It's crazy, and I have SO many things coming up.

In review - two weeks ago, we had our "fall break" which didn't really count as a 'vacation,' but it is the longest amount of time that IES gives us without classes (we had Friday and Monday off of school). I decided to use it to go visit my friend Nina, who spent her senior year of high school at Spring Lake. When I visited her here, I was the first one (except Steve, her boyfriend - he doesn't count haha.) from Spring Lake to come visit her in Europe. So that was pretty exciting! It was amazing, though, to see her on this continent.

Thursday afternoon, I took the train from Nantes-Paris (had to switch stations which proved a hilarious challenge...the Paris metro is not very compatible with lugging around suitcases. Which will be interesting when Meryl and I have to do the same switch with ALL of our luggage on our way to London in December...not just with an overnight bag like I had on this trip) and then Paris-Brussels. First thing, I had to find a WC (water closet)...found one, but it was a paid restroom, so I had to find a 50 Euro cent...not 2 20 Euro cents and a 10...just a 50. It took a while, but then I found the change machine into which you put your change...and got back more change? It was hilarious. And then I ended up going into the wrong side (because I obviously can't read Dutch!?!?) and I come out face-to-face with this man who was clearly trying to tell me, in Dutch, that I had failed miserably at this attempt. It was great fun. Then, I finally got in touch with Nina, via text, and she called and said that she was stuck in a ridiculous traffic jam and would be a while. About an hour later, we finally met up and got all excited, and then tried to navigate our way onto the highway which also proved interesting...Brussels literally consists of a million tiny little streets and one HUGE street with about 4 lanes, all the way through the city, that goes in and out of tunnels all over the place. It was a bit complicated. We finally got on, though, and arrived at Nina's apartment in Maastricht (or, actually Lanaken, Belgium - about 2 minutes from the border) and stayed there for the night.

The next day, Nina had class, so I woke up late-ish, watched CNN International - my new favorite activity (it literally has so much information...I saw commercials for Kosovo - not for tourism or anything, but literally advertising the legitimacy of the country's sovereignty. It was amazing), and then met up with her when she was done. We had waffles for lunch:
We then did ALL of Maastricht, led around by an amazing self-tour that we got at the tourism office. It took us everywhere we could have wanted to go...and read our minds. We would say "oh, that's a pretty street, we should go down it!" and then we'd look at the map, and it was say "turn left down this street, it's beautiful." haha. Nina lives there, but she even learned about a lot of the history of Maastricht.
I also went to Nina's Sustainable Development class, which was awesome. We were debating the definition of the term, which was fascinating because there were literally people there from: Norway, Denmark, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and then there was me. It was so cool. That night, we went out with some of her friends from class, and I had my first coffee shop experience, which was absolutely bizzare. Ask me about the details if you wish. haha


The next day, which was Halloween, we went to Duren, Germany - Nina's hometown...it was so wonderful seeing her hometown and her house, and her parents again - they came to Spring Lake for Nina's graduation, and we had them to our house for dinner. It was not only really cool being able to see them again, but also being around people who could 1- speak English 2- knew my family and my home and my home town and 3-feeling so at home! I loved it a lot. So, when we got to Duren, we just hung out and relaxed, which was lovely. Nina also taught me to drive stick shift, and apparently I'm a natural! I actually drove us to the grocery store, and then home, and didn't kill us! I was so proud. We then went and rented scary movies and bought chocolate, came home and helped with dinner and had a wonderful, 3-hour long dinner - my favorite kind! Then watched the movies and had a great Halloween night.

The next day was Cologne - we took a train in, fairly early in the morning, and started off right away. We climbed the cathedral stairs, which was exhausting but TOTALLY worth it.
It was beautiful at the top. We then explored the waterfront, and the old town, and I experienced a true, real-life beer haus in Cologne, complete with bratwurst and beer and everything.

The next day was my last day, and we decided to do Brussels. So we got up early, packed up and drove in to the city...and we didn't get lost! First, we went to the campus of the buildings in the European Union. It was so cool! Unfortunately, everything was closed -- because, we found out, there had been a summit of all the European leaders the past weekend, which in turn, we found out caused the traffic jam that Nina had been stuck in - all the motorcades for Sarkozy and Merkel, etc. SO cool! -- Then, we drove and found the Grand Place, which was doubly exciting for me, because it was deja vu: we had been there the first time I came to Europe...I even replicated the photo we took. It was still just as beautiful! we had about an hour left, and decided to ask the people at the tourism office what we should do with it...they told us to walk up these steps, so we could get a view of the entire city. It was so pretty!


It was a beautiful way to end the weekend. Then, I hopped on the train, and got back to Nantes. My host mom picked me up at the station, which was lovely because it was pouring rain. It was nice to be back "home" and speak French again ahah.

So that was my trip...much has happened since then, but unfortunately I don't have time now to talk about all the rest of it. I'll have to update you on Castle Quest '09 later on!

I would just like to apologize in advance....

....to anyone who will have to listen to me speak after I get home. This is really just a disclaimer blog, that you will probably all get really frustrated with me, and probably very quickly. And for that I'm sorry.

This is because I feel as though my head is permanently stuck in two different languages. Whoever said that spending a month in France was going to help me learn a lot of French...well they were right. How about that? I feel like I have learned SO much French since I've been here. This is a very good thing, obviously, since that's why I came. Before, I considered speaking to be one of the "easiest" facets of the language...but now I realized that that was because I didn't really realize how incorrectly I was saying things. Now, I get hung up on conjugating things into the plus-que parfait tense...which is such a good sign! Before, I wouldn't even have known when to use it, so I would have just used present or something like that. I have made a lot of progress...yesterday, my host mom actually pointed it out. They have been gone the past few weeks (in ISRAEL! I think it's amazing that everything that I've been studying in every single subject - except American History and maybe math - is now within arm's reach here...it's so cool!) and she said that in the time they were gone, I must have learned a lot. I was very proud of myself.

But it also causes the problem that I honestly don't know what language to think in anymore. This results in me blurting out sentences in half English and half French (whenever I'm not focusing on speaking in one or the other, that is)all the time. It's actually mostly hilarious/entertaining, and right now, this actually functions just fine...because if I'm not speaking with my host family (who know no English) or, say, my friend Hannah's parents (who know even less French haha) then I'm speaking with other American/French students who know both languages. Which means I can speak Franglish and it totally works with them, because they understand either way. With my fellow IES-ers, I don't even notice when someone says 'avec' instead of 'with' or 'j'ai fait' instead of 'I did.' For instance, I was emailing my advisor the other day regarding class scheduling, and I started my concluding sentence with 'Alors,....' and not 'so...' I only caught it when re-reading the email, otherwise he would have seen how crazy I have become as well. Also, you should see all of our facebook statuses (stati?), which are constantly being updated with Franglish. I'm quite enjoying it, actually! I can only imagine, though, what it will be like when I'm surrounded by all of you...who do know the difference. And for that, I would like to apologize, in advance!

In other news, here are some random stories from the past few weeks:
- Last Tuesday, I arrived at my class at the universite (or the Fac = faculte), which is on Constitutional Law. I have been doing alright in this class, solely by copying notes from the girl who types them on her laptop in front of me, and asking every day if we have any work/tests coming up just to make sure. Well apparently, the week before, something must have been miscommunicated, because I walked in and everyone was sitting studying notes (frantically, mind you) and picking up blue books. It was very much a test atmosphere and I kinda sorta panicked. I went up to the professor and told him that I had not understood and was not prepared whatsoever. He and I are pretty tight by now, so he told me to stop panicking, and that if it was a catastrophe, I could re-take it. Thank goodness! It was not a fun experience though!

- Also, my friend Hannah's parents are here this week. They're from a suburb of Chicago (Naperville) and this is their first time in France. I had brunch-ish food with them yesterday, and then I went over to Hannah's host family's house (they are gone on vacation right now) and her mom made us some delicious chicken noodle soup. If you believe in such a thing as soul food, this was it. It was so good, and it made me feel so at home...and it was so American! In a way, the meal pointed out lots of things that are different here (i.e. they don't eat bread DURING dinner, it's always after...and also, they use their paper towels EXTREMELY sparingly here, and I was shocked when Hannah's mom used them as napkins and to wipe the counter, etc.) but also, it just sort of combined the two worlds. It was very pleasant :-)

- It was midterms this week, which I had three of (grammar, Phonetics, and Construction of a European Union). They are all done now, which is lovely, but it was the first week of real school-work that I had to do. I haven't had regular homework, or papers due (they're all due at the end of the semester) yet...so I was sort of shocked into work mode. It was abrupt, and I didn't like it. Thankfully (or unthankfully, I don't know yet) I can put my confidence behind the fact that I just have to PASS these classes...they won't transfer into my GPA. Don't worry, I'm not going to go about purposefully failing them. It's a lot harder when it's in French though.

-MOST importantly...TOMORROW I LEAVE FOR MY EUROPEAN ROAD TRIP! I am leaving Nantes for Brussels, where I'm meeting my friend Nina (who went to SL for our senior year) and we're going to her school in Maastricht, which is on the border of Belgium and the Netherlands, and then to her home town near Cologne, in Germany. I'm SO excited. This also means the next blog will be about that! Can't wait!

Gettin' lost!

I have spent so much time completely lost lately. And it has been so fabulous! I realize this might be a bit cheezy, especially when I realized that Wooster's Study-Abroad orientation booklet was entitled exactly that: 'Get Lost!' haha. But I really feel like this was one of the things about which Wooster knows what they're talking about...studying abroad really truly is about being completely lost, and learning to love it. At least for me. For instance, in our booklet there was a chart (literally, a chart. it's kindof hilarious) about how our emotional status is going to go, and it looks pretty much like a crazy roller coaster. We're going to show up in this foreign country, be totally ecstatic for a while, then normalcy sets in and we realize how far away from home we are and we go through a slump. But then, little by little, we fall in love with where we are, and the new homes and friends and cultures and people we've found here - across an ocean and 6 time zones, but home nevertheless.

As much as I "hate" being a statistic, that's exactly what's happened to me. I have, not going to lie, been counting the days until December 21st, and getting more and more excited as the days pass. However, in these past few weeks, I have realized that I'm also getting more and more excited for the days in between now and December 21st. It's a bit overwhelming, but incomprehensibly amazing, to look forward at my life and realize that I'm literally ecstatic for every single day from now until literally March. I have so much coming up in these next months, and so much to look forward to! It's just crazy. I'm so lucky.

My first getting lost experience was last Monday, where it was an absolutely beautiful, sunny 60 degree day and I was done with class at noon. So I decided to walk home across town with Emily and then find my way back. If I found a street that I'd been on before, I took another one. It was great fun. Hannah called me and she asked where I was and I said I had no idea. Because I didn't! And I found a really cool church, and a school and ended up in this park that was gorgeous. I had so much fun, that I decided to not take main roads anymore and have since found some amazing things...which never would have happened had I just taken the same bus line back to my host family's house and stayed inside watching Grey's Anatomy online all day.

My second, and absolute favorite getting lost experience was when Peter, Hannah, Taylor and I decided to go buy train tickets for 20 Euro to the town of Rennes, which is the capitol of the department of Brittany (the equivalent of French states, or more like counties = departments). We got off from the train (which was literally the most hysterical 2 hours of the trip so far. SO much fun) without any maps or any idea of what there is to do in Rennes and just started walkin. We found an amazing castle-thing, and then the centre ville where we asked at the Office du Tourisme what we should do. She told us there was a market, which we went and explored (and good lord it was amazing. If any of you have ever been to a French market, you'll understand but if not - there are no words. The scents and sounds and colors and options and accordion music and people yelling at you to buy their stuff, and the other people who are on a mission to find their yellow figs and ginger roots and Emmentale or any other of 300 types of cheeses who will literally knock you over if you get in their way, and the man selling olives who is calling you 'beautiful miss' and the taste-testing UGH the taste-testing...it's amazing). Then we went to eat crepes (BIEN SUR!) because crepes are a Brittany thing, and Rennes is the capital of Brittany so clearly - these were the best crepes you're gonna get.
Mine was Apple and Sausage (very different than American sausage) and very delicious. I also had butter, sugar and caramel crepe for dinner UMMMMMM so good. Then we did the Virgin Megastore, and then the Brittany Parlement Building which was beautiful. Afterwords, we found the Jardin du Plantes which most major French cities have, but Rennes' was gorgeous. We sat there and ate our delicious baguette and cheese selection (which was where the 'Journey to the center of the baguette' quote came from. That was Peter) in the most beautiful park on the most beautiful day. AH we just were sitting there discussing how amazing our lives are - all while completely lost.

Today, after I did my homework and whatnot, Hannah called and asked me if I wanted to go get coffee. That never actually happened, but I did learn what was at the end of tram line 2 (and, consequently, how trams turn around - not that exciting, but we felt cool for knowing). I also took a boat back home which is probably the coolest thing ever. Then we followed an obscure path through the woods and ended up in the middle of the University campus. We were loving it.

Since the last post (I apologize for the failing again!) I have also gone to a birthday party with my host sister, where I was very much the only English speaker, and made many, many friends. I have also started going to our conversation club - hosted by IES but they invited French students as well and we spend 45 minutes speaking French together and the 45 minutes speaking English together so we can all practice our foreign language. I have also met friends there, and love practicing in such an energetic and fun atmosphere.

I have done so many things I can't begin to list them all here...but all of them have added up to an amazing feeling of satisfaction: I may not have been able to completely follow a conversation, or not known where in the city I was, or what bus line I should be taking, or how I was getting home at any point along the way........but I feel like all of that is EXACTLY what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I'm not SUPPOSED to know what I'm doing or who I'm going to be doing it with or where I'm supposed to be or even where I am after I get there. Because it means that everything is new, and everything is different. I'm living my life in France! This fact has really just started to settle on my consciousness, but every time I sit back and look at where I am, and where I'm calling home at this moment is a brand new revelation. It's totally ridiculous, how awesome it is. I get to explore French capitals with my amazing friends, and I get to ride a boat across the Loire river, and I get to eat cheese and baguettes in glorious gardens, and I get to do my homework while drinking espresso and eating a chocolate croissant. That I get to study for 2 more months in France, doing even more amazing who-knows-what in who-knows-where just blows my mind, and I'm pretty sure....that that was the point.

Catching up on things!

I decided to stop failing miserably at this whole blog thing...so while I'm sitting here, watching Dawson's Creek in French, I figured now was a very good time to update you all!

It is absolutely flabbergasting that I've been here for a month already. When I think about it - I have fit in so many amazing experiences so far, and have made a lot of progress toward becoming the kind of 'oriented' that I want to be. I have done a lot exploring around my house, and the town, and the region even, and I have developed a fairly good sense of surrounding. Here is what I have learned/seen in a nutshell:

Our neighborhood is very adorable, and also very safe. I get the feeling that a lot of families have searched out this place and decided it was the best. After getting off the night bus (which I admit, is usually full of crazies at about 11-12 at night) I feel completely safe walking the two blocks to our house. I have also met some neighbors, and this only confirms my thoughts.

The neighborhood is also really well-situated. My house is literally a block from the river, and last Sunday I went exploring which was faaaaantastic! When i go to the fac (university campus) from my house, I always walk the 'promenade' or the boardwalk-type path by the river, but only in one direction. So I decided to take a bike ride in the other direction...and I ended up going about 2.5 miles up the riviere d'Erdre and discovering, among many things, the beautiful Parc Florale de la Beajoire de Nantes (literally - the flower park of beautiful joy in Nantes haha)

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so this is a Google Images production, but it was absolutely gorgeous. Plus, on the beautiful last Saturday of September, there were a million families and couples out and about and I sortof felt like I was in the 1800's on a promenade in Paris...it was so amazing. And it made it that much better that I just stumbled upon it!

Expanding out further, I got to see some of the suburbs/countryside surrounding Nantes yesterday when my host dad brought me with him to his horse riding lesson with his trainer. There were some really quaint little neighborhoods on the drive out, and then when we got off the highway, we were smack-dab in the middle of the country! It's so shocking how little 'urban sprawl' there is here, and my host dad seemed to be really proud of this fact. He told me that his favorite part about France is that you can drive for not much more than 20 minutes, and be in a completely different area, with different architecture, different culture and even different language sometimes; and then go for another half hour, and it will completely change again. It was great. Plus, watching the lesson was really fun too, and helping him groom the horse (it definitely made me miss Girl, the horse I had for a year-ish...)

We saw even more of the area last weekend as well, when IES took us to go see Mont St. Michel! It was so amazingly beautiful, and also quite a shock that we were actually seeing this amazing monument that people wait years and years to get to see. We left insanely early - 7 am - and arrived just as the morning mist was lifting from the island. We got to explore the church (it's actually a basilica, because there's a difference between church/cathedral/basilica...I'm pretty sure it has to do with what religion built it?) and the little town around it. It was quite fun, and really beautiful. After we finished our tour there, we boarded the busses again and went to St. Malo, a really cute coastal town. We lunched there, and then meandered down to the beach and spent most of our 6 hours there :-) it was wonderful.

I also think it's really interesting that a lot of towns in this region (meaning, farther north/closer to Normandy) were almost, or completely destroyed during WWII. I have heard this reasoning a lot, to explain why there is so much mis-matched architecture in Nantes, but also things like...my host mom said not to take a weekend to go to Brest, which is really close, because it's not very pretty after they had to re-build it completely during the Reconstruction period. It's really interesting, and definitely highlights how different our countries' histories are - we learn about WWII and all, but they LIVED it. I can't wait till we go to Normandy (next weekend!) and get to learn more about this.

So, in addition to all of this exploring, we also went to the Opera in Nantes on

Thursday night, which was absolutely wonderful - we got all dressed up and felt very sophisticated, and grown up (kinda. hah). It was really fun. I also bought tickets this week to go to Marseille in November, I'm going to Belgium to visit Nina and MY MOMMY'S COMING TO SEE ME FOR THANKSGIVING! I'm so happy I have all of these things to look forward to. Not only am I going to have all these amazing experiences, but it's also making it a lot easier to do things by the day. I vary between stressing about how MUCH time I have left here, and then 10 minutes later I realize how LITTLE time I have here. It's interesting, but in general I'm getting the sense that time is going to be passing sooooo quickly. I actually have papers to start writing, and homework to do, plus applications and hopefully some IS research (I know, I'm a nerd. Whatevs) to get done.

That's about it for now...I'm going to head downtown and cheer on our new friends from the Oxford Rowing team at the international Crew Regatta on the Loire. Check fbook for more photos soon!

Random, late-night stories

Ok, I have to blog about tonight, before I forget all about it. It's Friday, which is not the day that French people go out on the town, apparently, because normal busses stop running fairly early, trams are infrequent, and it's more difficult to get home in general (when compared to Saturday nights, that is). However, our 'meal plan' with our families is that we only get 5 meals a week and therefore, we usually go out for dinners on both Friday and Saturday nights. Also, tomorrow we're going to Mont Saint Michel (!!!!!) and we're leaving at 7:45 am and thus could not stay out late.

So Hannah and I decide to go out at about 7:30 to find a place to have a leisurely dinner and be home by roughly 10:30. Easy enough. Except we found pretty much ALL the creepers. On the tram, on the way in, there was a man who was sitting fairly near where we were standing, and mumbling to himself. All of a sudden we hear 'SHUT UP!' coming from behind us. He stood up, and started yelling at us to SHUT UP and stop speaking English. I told him to calm down (in French) but he came closer, then sortof back-handed me on the shoulder and said SHUT UP again. CREEPY! Thankfully, the tram had just stopped at a stop so we jumped off and didn't have to deal with him any further. It was just so shocking! (and I'm pretty positive he was drunk)

THEN, much later, on the C bus coming home, we ran into some other people waiting for the bus (there's only 1 an hour). So 4 of us got on the bus, sat in one of those 4-person seat square things. Then, these two guys came and stood right next to us, obviously too close to the guy we were with (Timmy) for comfort. So then, the two girls got up, and it was Timmy and I sitting across from each other. Then the two French guys sat in their spots. Timmy sent the 'oh sorry, i should have sat there so that wouldn't happen' look, expecting them to start talking to me because I was English, blah blah. Then, all of a sudden, they turn to Timmy and say 'You're very very beautiful.' ahahahaha it was so great. I called Julie, to do a Creeper Call so they wouldn't follow me when I got off. But I got home completely fine and it was such a good story.

ALSO I keep forgetting to post this, but I got asked for directions in my neighborhood! And I knew what she was asking for, and I gave her the correct directions. It was SO EXCITING! I felt like a Nantaise.

Tomorrow is Mont Saint Michel! I'll post pictures for sure!