Spring Ahead!

This weekend was officially the time change to "heure d'été" or "summer time" in France. Yays. Actually, not yays because I have an 8am on Monday, make that body-time a 5:30am wake-up alarm and a 7am class. Boo. Also boo to my unproductiveness over the weekend as far as my devoir à la maison is concerned. I'll just have to really buckle down tomorrow and research, type, and work. I also saw "Astérix et les jeux olympiques" this weekend with my host mom - it was a little hard to follow sometimes with all the puns, but I did get some of them and it was very entertaining with lots of cameos by famous French singers, atheletes, and other celebrities.

Yays for Julie and me finally finalizing our Germany plans for the first week of Spring break! We're going to Strasbourg (which I realize is not actually Germany) for 4 days and I'm going to see Mary there! Many, many, many yays!!! Then we're going to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (which is actually Germany) for 5 days (one day will be spent in Ansbach visiting where Julie's family is from) and then we split up and Julie heads to Zurich to visit her sister and I'm off to Strasbourg and then Paris to meet up with my mom! More yays! Yays for us figuring out how to work the Deutsche Bahn website and more yays for us booking our hostels for all except one night, which is currently in negotiations with the hostel reception.

In all, there is very much to be thankful for, not including my non-motivationalness. Which reminds me, I should maybe get to work. Perhaps. Possibly.

Ele-fun!

Today after my second grammar midterm (How can you have two midterms? Does that mean there are two middles of the term?), I hung around IES basically procrastinating and doing some intense Spring break planning with Julie. We booked everything except our hostel for Rothenburg ob der Tauber and our return trains. I am sooo excited about this trip to Strasbourg and Germany and especially because we're taking trains! It is my absolute favorite form of transportation and there's no stress like there is with airports and flights. You also get to see the countryside and towns as you go, it's very relaxing and just nice all-around. Hopefully by the end of this weekend we'll have the loose ends tied up and everything will be taken care of.

In the meantime, Julie and I were busy planning, eating lunch, and then we went over to Les Machines de l'Ile with about 20 other IESers and rode the elephant. It was so cool, literally. It was soo windy today! But the elephant was ele-fun and we all had a great time even if it did take 45 minutes to go what would take me 10 mins to walk. I'll try and upload some pictures or a video soon!

Hamburgers, how I missed thee

Today was a little less long than yesterday (no hanging around at IES until 10:30pm anyways) and I didn't really get any work done (I am going to bemoan that this weekend when I have to write 3 papers), but it was fun and worth it!

This morning class; this afternoon, class. Then after grammar, I went with Julie to Monoprix and bought lots of yummy food and a bottle of Bordeaux, went back to her house and started cooking. There were 5 of us there and it was so fun just to get together, cook, and speak English! We made real, American-style burgers and it was delish! We also had salad, cheese, baguettes, tater tots, and an apple tarte I helped make. Just thinking about all the good food has my stomach grumbling. Mmmm.

And since I don't have class until 2pm tomorrow, I'm sleeping over and sleeping in. Woot.

Les Visiteurs

Today was the first day of classes this week! How nice to have only 4 days of classes. On the other hand, a three-day weekend before meant my govt. professor went a little loopy apparently, because he showed up randomly today and we had class. He didn't tell anyone what was going on, so I was just sitting upstairs, getting ready to go grocery shopping when Molly ran in and told me we were having class right then. Goodness.

Then tonight there was a shorter than usual conversation club and we had snacks afterwards (my Babybell cheese had a purple bracelet in it). And then we watched Les Visiteurs with about 20 people who decided to stay. It's kind of a cross between Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Back to the Future - yes, it is as strange as it sounds. It was quite funny though and I enjoyed it.

3-day Weekends Should Have a Theme Song

Well, since I haven't written since my uber-exciting Thursday, I shall cover both Friday and today in this special-edition 2-for-1 blog post.

Friday was just as exciting as Thursday. Except.... I finally, finally, finally saw Enchanted!!! Woo! My host mom and I watched it together last night and it was sooo cute! I am now on an extreme Disney kick and listened to lots of Disney music last night before falling asleep.

Today, I slept in a little (first Saturday in about 2 weeks I've been able to do that) and then went and met Laurel at Commerce for a little store browsing. We ended up walking over to Bouffay and the pet store again. (The crazy chipmunk was still there and this time I had my camera so I was able to take a movie.) Then we went to the cute discount shoe-store and I bought a replacement pair of black flats for the pair that is pretty much worn out from all the walking I do in them here. We walked up rue de Calvaire and all the fancy shops there and then shopped for a bit at Monoprix getting dinner food. We caught the 51 back to the apartment, met up with Julie, and just hung out for a while talking, listening to music, and watching some sbmail - Strongbad makes me laugh. Then we watched the Matrix (so much for my Disney kick) and had some lovely sandwiches that my host mom had made (so much for the dinner food we bought too - I'll just use it for lunch next week). We also had a super-yummy dessert, a kind of no-bake rose-rum cake covered in melted dark chocolate. Mmmm. It was a good way to end the day.

What I've Learned

Since today was a little boring, I will not be writing about my wonderful time in class, but rather a small list of things I've learned (some serious, some funny) so far here in France:

- Boulangeries in the same neighborhood take turns being open on Sundays

- nothing is open after 9pm except bars, restaurants, and movie theatres

- small children are the same everywhere

- so are middle school students

- the French aren't cold in person, just very particular about their privacy

- the French know cheese

- and bread

- if you walk fast and look like you know where you're going you may get asked for directions. many times

- the cutest shoes are in Europe

- scarves aren't just a fashoin statement (like the cute, European shoes) but a necessity

It Takes Two...

...days for me to come up with something to write in my blog apparently. Well, after St. Patrick's Day, I had my religion class Tuesday morning and then I was supposed to make up a class ahead of time with my govt. professor (he'll be gone for a conference for a week in April) and after 15 minutes of waiting, we sent our class rep up to talk to the director of our program. She called our prof, and it turns out he forgot completely - after reminding us many times Monday night! How silly. Oh well, it just means we'll have to make up class later, right? Then that afternoon following my art class, I went out with two girls for hot cocoa at an "American-style" cafe - aka it's a lot like Starbucks, but incredibly, even with the exchange rate of $1.57 to a euro, still cheaper! I also bought stamps so I was busy last night and this morning writing letters and of course, decorating them with my treat to myself, markers.

Today I had the lovely experience of being showered in brown vinegar and mustard in the IES kitchen. And I had clean jeans on too - boo. Good thing tomorrow is laundry day. On another note, I am filling in for someone this week at the library and instead of getting 2 hours, I'll be working 5! This is very good news considering the exchange rate right now.

Top o' the morning to ya!

What does an American student in France do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, you ask? Well, they don't dye their rivers green or anything crazy like that here, but I did wear green today. After many long hours of class, I left translation halfway through to go grocery shopping and also because I had all the work I needed already and the class isn't counting at GCC so I thought for the first time ever I am going to ditch a class. It was a thrill. What was even more of a thrill was finally going to see Juno. I went and saw the version originale with two other IES-ers at the Katorza because this past Saturday, Sunday, and today was "Cinema Weekend" in France - 3,50 euros for any movie, anytime, any movie theatre. We capitalized on that most definitely.

After the movie was over, we walked over to Bouffay together to meet up with some people at John McByrne's, the local Irish pub. It was packed, but in a good way - there were tons of people out on the street and about 5 bagpipers playing, everyone was singing and drinking lots of Irish beer. They were also giving out some prizes like ridiculous shamrock-covered hats. We saw a few Erasmus students from our translation class there and a bunch of French students we've met at conversation club. I didn't stay out too late, mind you, because I have class at 8:15am tomorrow morning. Happy St. Patty's Day!

Battles and Bayeux

Today, we got up, ate a lovely, lovely breakfast at the hotel, and parti-ed at 9am to go the the American cemetary and Omaha Beach. On the way there, we passed the Canadian memorial at Juno Beach; despite being the history buff that I am, I had forgotten about the Canadian regiment that came in there and I wish we could have stopped or a bit. Well, we got to the memorial and cemetary and it was especially powerful going there right after seeing the movies and being at the museum yesteray. Having those images fresh in my mind made it quite emotional to see all those white crosses in their perfectly straight rows (with an occasional Star of David in the midst). There were some soldiers that I saw who had died on the 6th or 7th of June in 1944, so I knew they had most likely died on the beach just down the hill from me. Most, however, died sometime later during 1944 or '45. I was even able to walk down to the beach because it was low tide. There is nothing besides the memorial to even indicate such a fierce battle having happened there.

Then, after a super-windy morning at Omaha Beach, we set of to visit Pointe du Hoc, which was the main German communications base. Out of 225 American Rangers that went in right before Operation Overlord, only 90 survived this assault, but they were able to take over the German base and because of them, the German communication lines were down when the beach landings happened early the morning of June 6th. It was absolutely pouring by the time we got there, but about halfway through our hour it was just spitting but incredibly windy. It was not emotional in the same way the cemetary was, but it was just as powerful, with huge craters everywhere left from bombs and the remnents of bunkers and storage rooms.

Then we left Point du Hoc to got to Bayeux to see the tapestry there that depicts the Norman invasion of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror. It was made in 1070 to in order to commemorate his victory and share with the illterate population how great he was. Amazingly it survived the French Revolution and both world wars only missing one panel at the very end.

Then, we were finally able to get back in the bus (I was finally able to change into dry socks) and we made the three-hour drive (Gilligan's Island, anyone?) back to Nantes and I had a nice, warm dinner with my host mom.

Cannily in Caen

This morning, I set off to Place Jean V to hop on a tour bus to Caen in Normandy. Once we got there (it was an IES trip), we walked around the town, grabbed a sandwich (or two) and had a picnic on the castle. After our free time, we went to the Caen Memorial Museum, which is the main museum in Normandy on WWII, what lead up to it, and the Cold War. We spent about 4 hours there and it still wasn't enough. There was so much information to soak in, so many personal stories to read or listen to, and so many 'artifacts' to see. (It feels weird saying artifacts when they're only 60 years old... maybe I should start calling my parents artifacts too? Haa, just kidding!)

After the museum, we went to our hotel for the night. It was very chic, right in the centre ville, and was so much nicer than the hotel we were at for orientation in Tours. I took the shampoo sample, hee. I felt very mischevious doing that. We had a delicious buffet dinner where we all at way too much, especially when the desserts came out. Who says no to French pastry though?

Fantastic Friday

This time, not only is the illiteration there, but it really was a fantastic day! First, I had grammar like usual and then after that, lots of procrastination, and finally lunch, Julie and I went to Le Lieu unique to see an art expo they have there. It was really interesting and quite funny. I liked it a lot and snagged a few brochures.

Then the best part of the day: we went to a pet store. Guess what mom? I got a baby hamster! No, not really. Hamsters kind of give me goosebumps, but I did look at loads of cats/kittens and lots of really, really, really, really, really, really, really cute puppies. It was a little slice of heaven for me. There was even a little chestnut-colored shi-tzu who was getting beat up on by a husky puppy, how cute. We also saw a cage full of chipmunks. No, I didn't stutter (how could I? this is a blog.): chipmunks. One of them was going totally crazy and Julie took a video so I'll see if I can get it and post it soon or something. I could have stayed there all day watching the animals, and I would have if I hadn't had to get back to IES for the castle tour.

And what came next, you ask? What else but a tour of the museum of, "Duchesse Anne, Chateau de Duc de Bretagne." (Yay tram lady voice!) It was more like a history of all of Nantes, but it was very cool to see how the town changed, and especially after WWII (Nantes was pretty much destroyed by all the bombing.).

Also, happy pi day to all my mathy-minded friends. I unfortunately did not have pie today, but I did have a slice of quiche, does that count?

Terrific Thursday

Well, maybe not terrific, but it was alright. What's important there is the illiteration. I like it.

Today was five and a half hours of Sylvie, and by Sylvie, I mean my Middle East professor. She's one of my favorites and she's inarguably intelligent in her area of expertise, but did we really have to make up a class ahead of time? I guess we really really did because not only did we have 2 hours of her on Tuesday but then we had 2 extra hours of her today - whew! It was interesting, but since she gives us the notes, I have virtually no motivation to take my own. So instead, I brought my markers with and colored in my little corner in the back of the room. I did take some notes, mostly wrote down dates and important names (and funny French idioms she likes to teach us). But that was about it. I am very satisfied with my reawakened marker skillz.

J'ai fini!

And done. Period. How nice is it to be finished with midterms? It's great! We'll see what the grades are when I get them back though.

Also, today was faire des courses for me, so I went out, got more pasta (it's quickly becoming the go-to food for me) and I also got herbes de Provence to put on the buttered carbohydrates. Also, on sale were a kilo of strawberries (mmm) and to finish it off, I bought fresh plain yogurt. I think I might be adventurous next week and get rice pudding. All in all, I'm very satisfied with my grocery shopping skillz, which is just about the most exciting thing to happen to me this week. Yay.

Almost there!

I am donnnne! Well, almost, after tomorrow I will be done with midterms not counting the translation class at the fac that I can't study for anyway (it's on March 31). Today was art history and a super-special extra edition of Middle East to make up for one we will miss later this month.

Also, looking for summer internships and such has become a very pressing issue very suddenly. I really need to get booking on that and it's difficult because there are lots of great ones out there that I can't apply for since I'm not at home. Or at least that's what I think. I'll have to get working on it soon. On the other hand, a friend just found out they were accepted for a stupendously stupendous internship in Paris! Yaayyy! I'm very excited and also a bit jealous. I'm having so many great experiences here, I'd like to stay in France for the summer.

Wintry Mix

Okay, so it wasn't a real wintry mix, but we did have more rain and hail today. Can I get a cheer for the strange 60 degree hailing weather? Okay, maybe not. This morning when I got up and looked outside, my first thought was, "Oh no." That's a great way to start the week - 50mph wind gusts and rain/hail. Then things perked up when I saw an IESer at my bus stop, but when we got to IES for Grammar, the doors were locked! We ended up staying outside with about 5 other students from our twelve-person class until the cleaning lady finally came and let us in.

During work this morning it was sunny and hailing. Of course then I ran around looking out all the windows to see if there was a rainbow, but alas, there was none.

Mademoiselle Abby and the Weekend of Whirl

Whoops. It seems I let myself get quite behind and need to update!

So, this past week was 2 midterms (I got one of them back and did well on it) and then this Friday, instead of having grammar class at 10am, I was up and out the door to catch tram ligne 3 vers Neustrie to Commerce to switch to tram ligne 1 vers Beaujoire to Gare SNCF Nord at 6:15! I was up at 5:40 voluntarily, Dad. Granted, it was not to chop wood or listen to the On Eagle's Wings cd (haha), but rather to go to Paris for the day.

The train ride was non-eventful and we arrived on time, headed over to the Jardins de Luxembourg and the royal palace (where the French Senate is) and wandered around for about 20 minutes until our tour started. The tour guide was nice, offering to take group pictures at just about every set of huge stairs we went by and we saw the hall of busts (marble heads of important dead senateurs) and the library, which was a bit like Beauty and the Beast and made me smile.

My govt. professor, M. de Villers was really funny and mischevious, trying to thwart our tour guide at every turn so we could peak into the central chamber and see the senat in session. We did get to go at the very end of our tour once the session was over, but it just wasn't the same minus all the senateurs in the room.

Once the visit to the Senat was over, we had free time until 2:30, so I headed to Angelina's with one of my friends. It was obnoxiously expensive (7 euros for a hot cocoa) but it was so worth it. It's supposed to be THE BEST place for hot chocolate and Mont Blanc in Paris, so we each got a hot cocoa (more like drinking chocolate and comes with heavy whipped cream) and split a Mont Blanc. Total bill for all that: 20,50 Euros. Yowch. It's okay, because it was so rich I didn't have lunch or dinner.

Then the most mind-numbing tour of 16th century French art in the Louvre followed - I can't believe it was only an hour long, it felt like three. After that, I had about an hour and a half before we had to take the metro back to Montparnasse and so a group of IESers and I took lots of really fun pictures mimicking the lovely, classical Greek and Roman statues.

Saturday I was able to sleep in after that looong day and then my host mom and I went to an art exhibit and over to her friend's house for dinner and to play the Chicago version of Monopoly I gave her. It was a pretty fun time and everyone got along decently well, so by the time we got back to the apartment around 9pm, I was tired.

Today, I tried to go to church in the morning, but once I got there just a little late, the gates were locked. I was quite taken aback to think that they lock people out of church, but because we had been on vacation last week we had missed the announcement that church was somewhere else. I figured that one out after I got back to the apartment and saw the announcement online. Oops. So instead, I listened to a church service online from home and got booking on my translation essay, which was not as difficult as I had expected.

Pleasant Valley Wednesday

Speaking of Monkees, my Religion professor must have about 10 pairs of eyes and hands because he graded all of our 4-essay per student midterms after we took them yesterday morning. It was a little scary getting them back so soon; I wasn't prepared for it when he said, "J'ai tous les examens pour vous." Eek! Turns out I did alright except on one question, which is fine, but I kept mentally kicking myself for the rest of the day over it, "If I'd only gotten more points on that one I could have gotten an A+!" Oh well, I guess that's the inner Grover in me, eh?

The rest of the day was pretty boring minus my lunch - noodles, tomatoe sauce, and freshly-chopped green olives! woo olives! My Monoprix shopping skillz are becoming quite good. I felt so extravagant this week spending 8 euros on food - the most I've ever spent for my IES lunches during a week so far. It turns out noodles are super, super cheap here and they sell this almost instant kind that works well in the micro-onde. Much nicer than cold bread and cheese for lunch every day! All in all, today was quite pleasant and quiet if not just tired and lazy in general; the only darkish spot was me bringing some letters to friends from home with me to drop in the poste today and then realizing I didn't have any money to buy stamps with! Duh! It's okay though, I'll just do it tomorrow.

Rain on the Plains

"What I wouldn't do to have an 8am back at GCC," is something I never thought I would ever think on a regular basis. But, an 8am class that does not include a 45 minute commute sounds lovely to me. No getting up before the sun rises, waiting in the cold and the dark for the bus. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining because it's really not that cold here, but compared to 75 degrees of sunshine in Spain, the rain on the plain of Nantes is not getting any appreciation awards. Oh well. I guess the early mornings are preparing me for student teaching and beyond, right? At least that's what I like to tell myself these days.

I am back in France and classes officially started up again today at a very early 8 o'clock in the the morning. It was almost nice though, being back from running around Spain to a real, daily schedule! Until, that is, I remembered my midterms this week. Pooh.

All in all, not too bad: one Tuesday, one Thursday, one next Tuesday and Wednesday each. And the mystery midterm of Translation II - whenever that will be. The professor told us yet again today he doesn't know... well, Monsieur, if you do not, who does?

On a bright note, I got a letter from a friend back at GCC! It was a lovely surprise coming back from vacation to early classes and have a letter waiting for me!

Back in Nantes

Oh! How good it is to finally be back home - and how nice it is that my blog is virtually updated!(Trust me, doing three long blogposts in one afternoon is a lot; I feel for professional authors now.)

This morning, we all got up, checked out amist lots of loud little French kids and their fathers who were staying at the hostel to go see the football game that night, and made it to Barcelona -Sants Station in time to sit around, eat some sour strips (mmm), and catch the 11:25 train to the aeropuerto.

Once we got the the airport, since we were there so early (our flight was at 2:15), we also had the joy of sitting around waiting for our terminal and gate to be posted for about an hour. I sadly was very entertained by the seran-luggage-wrapping station not too far away from our seats. Why would someone get their luggage seran-wrapped? To deter thiefs? To make it waterproof? To bypass security searches on checked luggage? To protect it from a viciously drooling dog? Just a few things one may contemplate while sleep-deprived and easily amused.

The flight back to Paris was pretty non-eventful; no outrageous flight attendants or anything, and Orly was quite nice (I'd never been before). Then a quick 9 euro bus ride to Montparnasse and we were ready to leave ... a full hour before our train. So what next, say you? What else but dinner of course! Chicken salad sandwiches are particularly good fare, and the pigeons definitely agreed with me when I dropped a bit.

Thankfully the TGV back to Nantes did not hit anything and we got back exactly at 21:02, when we were supposed to. I came to the conclusion during this long ride, that little girls at least are the same in France. She was about 8 and adorable, minus the kicking (but when have little kids ever kept still?). Her French was so cute to listen to and knowing that I understood her and her parents was nice after being in Spain and not understanding a whole lot for such a long time. It's good to be home.