Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo

Friday night Alee spent the night at my house since we had to be at IES at 7:45 in the morning and she lives way far away and I don't. That was fun, we talked and watched friends....good times. So yesterday I went to Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo with the rest of IES which was really fun. It took like three hours to get there since it's in Normandy, but it was totally worth it. None of us really like the bus though...but it was double-decker which was SO COOL!! Anyway so we got to Mont Saint Michel and took a tour and we saw real monks! Alee thought it was really cool because she had never seen nuns or monks before (except in Sister Act and the Sound of Music). We didn't see any nuns since it was a monastery but still...anyway so we took the tour. And there's quicksand nearby apparently. We went to explore and there was definitely quicksand. It wasn't Indiana Jones style but still pretty fun. I thought I was going to slip and bite it, and I did slip but I did manage to keep my balance. 

Then we went to Saint Malo, which is this really pretty port town on the English Channel. Samuel (the IES social coordinator and the leader for the trip) told us there was a famous French writer buried on the island (I can't remember his name) and that if we wanted to see the tomb we should go quickly because the tide covers the path to the island and if you don't go soon you'll get stuck. So Alee and I decided that we wanted to go so as we're crossing we notice that the tide is coming in quickly and decide that we should be really fast. So we get to the island and up to the top of the hill and look back down and the path is COMPLETELY covered with water. So without having seen the grave we decided to turn back because we don't want to get stuck so we get close and then take off our socks and shoes and roll up our pants and walk/swim carefully back to shore. We were walking but the water came up to my knees and mid-theigh at the highest point so I think that counts as "swimming" so I can say that I walked/swam across part of the English Channel! It was fun and definitely amusing after we had gotten back to shore, but slightly frightening as we were crossing. The tide was stronger than I thought it was going to be and since we were walking on a stone path, it was really slick.  There were also two IES girls behind us that ended up taking off their pants and crossing in their underwear because the water was up to their waists. But it was all good because it was sunny and warm, so we got something to drink and sat on the beach and dried off before exploring around Saint Malo a little more before we had to get back onto the bus to head back to Nantes. 

My host mom comes home today after being in the Mediterranean for a week, and I'm glad. It's really quiet and lonely here and I'm getting sick of having to cook for myself! Plus I find that I'm slipping more and more into English mode which definitely isn't good...even if it is comforting. 

 I'll try to update again soon..although next weekend I'm going to London and I'm leaving my laptop here so I won't update next weekend, but the week after next I'll update with all of my adventures! Miss you all!

letters, irish guys and birthday parties...

so i'm pretty sure i officially suck at blogging. this week my host mom is out of town (vacationing in the mediterranean) and so it's just me and sophie. so naturally, this is the week that i get sick. boo! anyway it's a head cold and i'm pretty sure it's because last weekend i walked around Nantes in the middle of the night when it was cold outside!! lame. anyway i got a letter today from the knudsens and that was just fantastic!! so this weekend (assuming i feel up to it) i'm going to see a horse race with alee this friday and then saturday i'm going to mont st. michel with IES and then just homework and relaxing. then next weeekend is LONDON!! i'm super excited. not a lot has been happening here, just school as usual...miss you all!

ooh!! i almost forgot. Erica, Anna, Christine and I were walking back from the monoprix and stopped at place royale and we ate chocolate croissants (which was amazing) and then on the way back to IES we were walking in front of two Irish guys (with nice accents) who were wearing guiness shirts. it was amazing....and today i got a note in my mailbox about a birthday party that ies is throwing for everyone who's birthday's in september so next tuesday (30/9) is "my" birthday party that i'm sharing with a couple other people! how exciting!! but yeah that's pretty much all that's happened. miss you!

Public Transit Shut Down...

So I'm so grateful that I live close by to IES! So this morning I walked to school (as usual) and I get here and apparently there's a massive protest going on and all public transit has been shut down and all government-employees and businesses are on strike as well. Apparently what happend was there was a woman bus driver who was driving the other day and her brakes failed or something and she was killed by her own bus...I don't know exactly how that works, but yeah so now there's a big protest outside city hall and the post office, all public transit and other random things are closed. it's kind of lame. but apparently it's just for today and it's just in Nantes, so a whole bunch of my friends had to walk like 30-45 minutes to school. That's all that's new for now. Miss you!

Chasse au Treasur and the weekend of patrimoine and pictures!

I just posted pictures from this weekend!!

Wow the past couple of days have been soooooo busy it's crazy! So on Friday at 2:00 IES had a "chasse au treasur" (treasure hunt) and we had 2 hours to find all these things and get back to the IES center. I was in a group with Erica, Anna, and Emily C. and it was really fun!! We are all pretty competitive so we were determined to win - the treasure hunt took us all over Nantes: the chateau, the tabac, the theater, la cigale, the park, and other historically important places, as well as doing silly things like buying a postcard and stamp to the US and buying a baguette and asking for the receipe. It was really fun! We came in second though which bummed us out. Friday night I went over to Erica's house and we hung out there for awhile and then I came back to my house.

This weekend is the weekend of patrimoine which is basically culture weekend and all culturally important sites (castles, museums, etc) even if they're private residences are open and free to the public so yesterday I went to the musee d'histoire naturelle which was really cool!! I want to go back! After the musee I went to l'eglise st. nicolas (st. nick's church) and then after that I wandered around for awhile, then got lunch and at 3 I met Erica, Emily and Anna at IES and we went to the chateau and looked around - it was really cool! then after the castle we looked at the shops nearby and there's the old bookstore right near there that I love!!! There are so many old books and omg I just wanted to buy the store! I restrained myself however :-) 

We were going to go on a nighttime tour of Nantes but there were so many people and the lady wasn't speaking loud enough so we ditched that and just went and got coffee and talked at a cafe. Then we went to walk Alee and Laura home which took FOREVER!! We left the cafe at 10:30-ish and we took Alee home (she had to walk through this sketchy area) and then we were "near" Laura's house so we walked her home and then to the tram and we got there and I asked if we were sure that the tram we were waiting for was going in the right direction and everyone said yes, and I (the directionally challenged girl) was right and we ended up going the wrong way on the tram (at midnight) so we got off at bignon which was like 10 stops away from where we wanted to be and had to wait another half an hour for the tram to come BACK and take us to where we needed to be and at this point it's quarter to 1 so instead of going back to my host mom's (who's gone for the weekend) I ended up crashing at Emily's house last night and walking home this morning. Overall, just yesterday I ended up walking over 10 miles!  

So I was going to go and see some other things today but I'm thinking I'll just do my homework and hang out here because I don't want to get lost or anything :-) Miss you all!

LONDON BABY!

So today started out pretty badly but took an upturn. I bought one of my books for class which was good. It's "L'etranger" which I've already read 2 times so I'm kind of bummed but whatever, at least I know the story a little bit! Anyway so I switched into art history which was way easier than I thought so that's quite exciting if I do say so myself. And Erica, Emily C., Anna and I are planning on going to London October 3-5 (the first weekend of october) which is VERY EXCITING!!! WOOHOOO!!! And now I have "friends" quotes going through my head (for those of you who didn't get the reference in my title...). And so now apparently I'm on the "inner circle" with those girls which is exciting because they're all really nice --- not that we're trying to exclude but it's too hard to try and travel with like 8 million people. anyway. 

I also talked with Sophie this afternoon and I saw pictures of her family and we talked about music, boys, etc. We're going to be home alone next week so I think we're going to go out to dinner one night or something. And maybe go to her aunt's for dinner one night. anyway that's pretty much all that's new right now. miss you all!! 

So today was pretty relaxing. I didn't have class until 5:15 and it was only an hour long -- phonetics and conversation. I've decided that I don't really like that class and would rather take an art history class so tomorrow I'm going to ask Julie (the academic advisor here) if I can switch in. Phonetics was awful -- horribly boring and when I couldn't think of the word, the professor mocked me. raar not a good day. I'll write more later but now I have to go eat dinner because I'm going to the movies tonight with my host mom and her daughter :-) A bientot! 

pictures

I've posted some of my pictures from the last two weeks here. You don't need facebook to look at them. I have way more but these were some of the best ones/my favorites :-) miss you all! (some of the pictures I've already posted, but there are some new ones!)

pinky promises and tide to go

So the last couple of days have been good. On Thursday we had a "family" dinner. Sophie (the French student staying here as well), Madame Bechaux and I all had dinner together and we had a good cheese, squash, ham casserole which was strange but good. At dinner we talked about the French soccer team, Zenadine Zedane (sp?) and somehow the conversation turned to the french version of "cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" so I taught Sophie and Madame that and then we started talking about pinky promises which was interesting to explain. It was fun but they were like "what's the significance of that?" so I had to explain that to a young child it was an unbreakable promise. It was very amusing. 

Then yesterday at dinner my host mom and I were talking and she was like "oh no I spilled" and I had just come back from school and had my purse with me downstairs and I got tide to go out and gave it to her and she thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. She asked if someone in the US would be willing to buy one and mail it to her and she'd give them money. Once I explained to her that I had another one and she could keep the one I was holding she got really excited and was like "oh show me how it works", etc. And she got all excited and was like "I'm going to show my friends this, France should do this, etc". hahaha.

Today I slept in which was really nice. When I got up, I cleaned my room and sorted through papers then I went downstairs and read my book for like 45 minutes in her garden and she came out and joined me which was nice. At 12:30 I met my friends at IES and we walked to the Monoprix (like Freddies/Target) to get lunch and then we picnicked at le jardin de plantes, a really pretty garden in Nantes :-) After that we explored around and took lots of pictures, then we went to Carrefour to get school supplies and while we were at the mall I got a pair of really cute earrings. Now I have a little bit of time to myself before I meet my friends at Place Royale for dinner :-) 

Overall I'm having a good time, although the past couple of days I've been homesick -- I think it's because I haven't been quite as busy so I've had more time to think about it. Ooooh and on Friday I picked my classes - I tested into the middle level grammar class which I'm happy about. I'm also taking Sociology (7:45am monday morning blech!! but other than that I'm excited about it), a translation class at Universite de Nantes (French-English, English-French), French Writers and Foreign Nations and a Phonetics and Conversation class to improve my accent and ability to converse (in case that wasn't obvious from the title, haha). Anyway I miss you all!! I'll try to post some more pictures soon!

so the last couple of days here have been really busy. we start classes at 9:30 and they go until 6 or a little after at night but i think that's just for this week since it's orientation. so far this week we're taking grammar classes, basic language classes and a conversation class. they're all really easy because it's review but still. other than that we have lectures on safety, how to act around our host families, etc. and we've been taking tours. monday we took a walking tour of nantes and got to see the post office, the bank, ies, the bus/tram stop and useful things like that and tomorrow we're going to go see the more historical (and thus interesting) things in nantes which i think will be good but i have to remember to wear comfortable shoes!! a whole bunch of girls have been wearing shoes that are fashionable but they all have blisters. haha. ooh and today we took a tour of the university that's near by (universite de nantes). everyone has to take at least one class at the university but we don't enroll in classes until friday - but i think i want to enroll in a french/english translation class so that'll be good. 

as for the other parts of life here, i met sophie (the french student who's boarding here as well) yesterday and i think she's nice. she speaks fast but i think that'll be good for me. she's studying law at the universite de nantes so i can ask her questions about the campus and things like that. my host mom is really nice and i like her, although she intimidates me sometimes. i've found that i speak better french at night after i've had all day of french but she likes to talk in the morning at breakfast and it's hard because i don't have a lot to say and i'm still sort of in english mode, but she's understanding so that's good. oh and my host mom (madame bechaux -- pronounced bay-show) asked me if i watched what i ate or was on a diet and i said no not really, but i try to make sure i don't eat horribly all day everyday and she said "well that's good, because you shouldn't. you don't need to" so that was really nice since a lot of french people think americans are fat (because it's true....). she also said that i speak pretty well although i think she's just saying that so i will continue to speak, but she's taken to correcting me when i speak, although she doesn't correct me too much so it's still good for my self-confidence. LOL. 

i've made some friends here, everyone's really nice and there are only a few people who irritate me but almost everyone is super outgoing and understanding about trying to speak in french which is nice. i have my french phone and i think i figured out how to set up my voicemail. i had to record it twice although i'm not sure the second time worked but if it did i speak french briefly first and then switch to english so if you call me and you hear someone speaking french (with a horrible french accent) don't hang up unless you don't hear english afterwards. haha. okay well it's late and i wanna go to bed now. but i miss you all!! 

here are some pictures i've taken since i've been here. i've taken a ton so these are the best/my favorite. 

so the top picture is me in a castle in Bretagne where King Henry VII was held prisoner in the 1400s; the middle picture is the entire IES group; the picture that says Benjamin Franklin, was taken at the same port as the bottom picture and the sign says something along the lines of "this is where Benjamin Franklin stayed when he was traveling to Nantes (and got lost in a storm and ended up a ways away from Nantes) when he first came to France to negotiate the first alliance between France and the US."(around the time of the Revolutionary War); and the bottom one was taken at a port in Vannes and those are the "knights of oysters" (it was at an oyster festival....). 

boo

so last night was my first bad night. i got back from vannes and was waiting for my host mom to come pick me up and then i remembered that james (another ies student) was going to walk me home since my host mom wasn't in nantes and he lives near me. so he TOTALLY LEFT WITHOUT ME. so then i was in a panic because i hadn't walked to my house before so i had to wait until they confirmed that james was at his house, my host mom was still out of town and then i had to lug my stuff all the way to my house. only when i got there, my host mom told me that she wouldn't lock the deadbolt so i'm trying to open the door (which is difficult even without the deadbolt) for fifteen minutes until james and his host mom drive by because they realize they've forgotten me. so at this point i've been "abandonne", i'm sweaty and frustrated and i can't get the freaking door open. then james gets out of the car after watching me struggle and is like "try the top one" and i told him that it wasn't supposed to be locked, only to find out that my host mom had, indeed, locked the top one so once i figured that out i was able to go into my house. i then had to wait like an hour or so until my host mom came home and made dinner and at dinner she said "so you forgot to go with james?" like i was stupid. raaaaaaaar. NOT a good day. but it's over now so that's good. i'm going to go to the monoprix (like a freddies) now (hopefully) and get a hairbrush since the tsa took mine. ooh and get a phone if i can. although i'm thinking i might get one tomorrow instead because i have no idea where i'm going.

vannes=rainy!!

so i'm back from vannes which was actually pretty cool but it rained the ENTIRE time. we went out one afternoon and came back completely drenched and i couldn't wear my jeans for the next 2.5 days! it was crazy. and i had to dry my pea coat and my shoes with the really wimpy hair dryer and it took forever. i had a good time though. i took lots of pictures and we saw a few chateaus and fortresses. we were supposed to take a boat and then bike around an island up there but because of the weather we went to a sardine factory/cannery instead. it was totally lame. but i had a good time. i'm looking forward to having some down time this evening though. tomorrow i have to be at the ies center at 9:30 for classes. i took my grammar placement test today and i think i find out how i did tomorrow. i miss you all!!!

im finally here!!!

so i finally got here after an interesting adventure from pdx to dulles. apparently united airlines is completely dumb and was showing a movie about a plane being hijacked for the inflight movie which caused the woman next to me to freak out and scream terrorist which led to complete chaos. and not to take the side of the dumb lady who yelled or anything but seriously united? not a good call.....anyway i made it here safely so that's good. im at ies waiting for my host family to come get me. tomorrow i am going to vannes for 3.5 days so i probably wont update before then. miss you guys!!!