Bonjour tout le monde!
Phew...so glad that midterms are over. Well, almost. I have one if a few weeks for Translation, but there is really no way you can prepare for that one other than reading books and learning new vocabulary. So anyways, last week was a busy week for me and wouldn't be too exciting to recount in detail, since it mostly consisted of late night studying for Midterms in my Middle East and European Union class with breaks for some Office Season 3 :) So I'll just give you some highlights.
Since we have 3 weeks total of break, most other students have planned amazing trips for our time off. Going back to school on Monday, it was amazing to hear everyone's stories; however, even more fun to think about what I was going to be doing in April for our 2 weeks off. I orginally was thinking Ireland and Switzerland, since firstly, Ryanair has some great prices to Dublin from Nantes, and secondly Switzerland is a frenchspeaking country so it would be easy to get around. So I started asking around, and found a friend who wanted to go to Ireland too! So Thursday night we stayed up til 12:30 booking our flights, and let me tell you, I'm syched! So sooo excited! We havn't pinned down anything except the planes yet, so all I know is Im going to Ireland for the last 5 days! Sooo cool! For the rest of break, I beleive I will stay in the South of France, but that is still to be decided...
Anyways, Friday was an IES "field-trip" to Paris. We had a few choices, but I ended up deciding to do "Le Senat" (Capital Hill of France) in the morning and a guided tour of the French Painters wing of the Louvre in the afternoon. So 5:30 am, after reserving my Ireland tickets, I woke up bright and early and got the train with the rest of my class. The Senate was interesting enough. I chose it because its not exacly a tourist hot-spot and I didn't think I would ever get the chance to see it at another time. But in reality, its just a big, nicely decorated building, where people make laws. No biggie. For lunch, I dragged a few of my friends over to the Latin Quarter where I promised them a hot, tasty, and reasonably-priced lunch and we were not dissapointed. I dont know if I could ever get tired of grabbing a hot crepe or Gyro and wandering around the streets of Paris looking at the cute shops and famous monuments. So we stopped at the famous Shakespeare & Co bookstore and then wandered over to Notre Dame since some of the people I was with had never been to Paris before. I enjoyed pulling out my Rick Steves' guide to France and reading them some history of the famous monuments :) The afternoon at the Louvre was good as well. It was my third time to the Louvre, so even though we explored a few rooms that I swear I had never seen before (its soo huge!), the whole awe and amazement has started to wear off. Therefore, we decided to go to the statue section of the museum and spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures recreating the famous poses. The Centaur with an angel riding on his back was extremely challenging. We had a lot of fun, but after walking around in heals all day (had to dress up for the senate) I was so very happy to get on our train, come back to Nantes, and spend an evening relaxing with a book and some American Popcorn :)
The next day I woke up to a light rain. Here in March, the weather is insane. It down-pours for 10 minutes, and then you look up in the sky, its sunny, and you cant find any clouds, then 15 minutes later it rains, or hails (as it did on Sunday). But I happen to find a light rain at 50 degrees Farenheit perfect for running. So, completely energized, I just took off and for an hour I ran next to the river near my house, exploring some of the forest, finding a random field in the middle of nowhere. It was great :) I do not know where it came from, but it was one of those moments where you are just thrilled to be alive and I just took off sprinting up and down hills, loving the feel of wind and rain (or sometimes complete sunshine!) on face. Now, since I havn't been running regularly enough...waking up Sunday morning and feeling the effects of all this wasn't very nice. But it was a good afternoon.
Saturday night was movie night :) I went to a friend's house only to find they were planning on watching one of my favorite movies in the whole wide world : La Vie est Belle/Life is Beautiful/La Vita e Bella (but in French of course.) I brought some of my popcorn, which if I say so myself, was a hit..since most people havn't had it since they left the states. As for the movie, it was great...except that Bonjour, Bonjour Princesse just isn't as good as Bon Giorno Princepesa! There's something about that Italian! (If you have no idea what Im talking about....Go watch the movie)
Sunday morning was my first Nantes Market experience. France is famous for their open-air markets. and in other cities that I have been to, I have loved to walk through and see all the fresh fruits, veggies, cheese, meat, etc. However, I hadn't ever found one in Nantes. Turns out that there are a few bigs one, but just not on any of my normal routes. So since I arrived at Church Sunday morning only to find that the service for the day had been moved to an unknown location, we opted to go check out the Talensac Market. It was very fun and I am pretty sure you could find just about anything there. From the 80 cent crepe-lady to the dried candied fruits to flowers to shoes to almost full cows hanging in the meat sections! The great thing about markets though, is that its the reason why French and Italian food is so good! Its not exactly that they know how to cook a ton better than American chefs, its that ingredients are so fresh and delicious :)
For the afternoon, we had been given tickets to see a modern dance performance at the Theatre Graslin near my school. I was very excited because I walk by this theatre with huge roman collumns and stairs leading up to its doorway every day when I walk downtown, but had never seen the inside. However, it was not what I expected. The theatre was nicely decorated, but could only hold 300-400 people. But the dance was just crazy. I know that I am not an incredibly artistic person, and that sometimes I dont really care for abstract things because I just don't understand them, but this was just nuts. For the first act, 3 people pretty much just ran around the stage while one man sang an opera-like solo. While trying to keep from falling asleep, I thought to myself...I'm pretty sure I could do that, and I havn't been in dance lessons since I was 4. The second one seemed like it was representing a dream-state (as one man started off wearing a goat mask), and although I didn't understand a thing, at least there was technique. However, as the french are much more comfortable with nakedness in general, it was a bit odd to watch a dance where the two woman were wearing dresses that only covered half of their chests. All in all though, I guess I can now say I've gone to a french theater! and at least its a funny memory...This has truley been a week of cultural events.
One last thing before I go. I recently found out that I got into a Research Experience for Undergraduates at Georgetown! So I beleive that is where I will be spending most of my summer. I know I wrote earlier about the stress of finding an internship, and its an incredible releif to know this far ahead of time that I have a job and will be getting some valuable experience to help me decide on grad school! So now, I just have to keep praying that Jim will get one in D.C. as well :)
Well, it seems that my time here isn't going to slow down much, as there is SO much on my schedule! This weekend, we are going to see the famous Normandy beaches of WWII which I have really wanted to see and I think will be very moving. Then, Monday my brother Scott is coming to visit me for a few days! Later that week, I am taking my exam for Certification in the French Language and then its Easter! So I apologize ahead of time if you don't hear from me for a while!
In the mean time, Have a great Palm Sunday and an Incredible Easter! He is Risen! :)
Phew...so glad that midterms are over. Well, almost. I have one if a few weeks for Translation, but there is really no way you can prepare for that one other than reading books and learning new vocabulary. So anyways, last week was a busy week for me and wouldn't be too exciting to recount in detail, since it mostly consisted of late night studying for Midterms in my Middle East and European Union class with breaks for some Office Season 3 :) So I'll just give you some highlights.
Since we have 3 weeks total of break, most other students have planned amazing trips for our time off. Going back to school on Monday, it was amazing to hear everyone's stories; however, even more fun to think about what I was going to be doing in April for our 2 weeks off. I orginally was thinking Ireland and Switzerland, since firstly, Ryanair has some great prices to Dublin from Nantes, and secondly Switzerland is a frenchspeaking country so it would be easy to get around. So I started asking around, and found a friend who wanted to go to Ireland too! So Thursday night we stayed up til 12:30 booking our flights, and let me tell you, I'm syched! So sooo excited! We havn't pinned down anything except the planes yet, so all I know is Im going to Ireland for the last 5 days! Sooo cool! For the rest of break, I beleive I will stay in the South of France, but that is still to be decided...
Anyways, Friday was an IES "field-trip" to Paris. We had a few choices, but I ended up deciding to do "Le Senat" (Capital Hill of France) in the morning and a guided tour of the French Painters wing of the Louvre in the afternoon. So 5:30 am, after reserving my Ireland tickets, I woke up bright and early and got the train with the rest of my class. The Senate was interesting enough. I chose it because its not exacly a tourist hot-spot and I didn't think I would ever get the chance to see it at another time. But in reality, its just a big, nicely decorated building, where people make laws. No biggie. For lunch, I dragged a few of my friends over to the Latin Quarter where I promised them a hot, tasty, and reasonably-priced lunch and we were not dissapointed. I dont know if I could ever get tired of grabbing a hot crepe or Gyro and wandering around the streets of Paris looking at the cute shops and famous monuments. So we stopped at the famous Shakespeare & Co bookstore and then wandered over to Notre Dame since some of the people I was with had never been to Paris before. I enjoyed pulling out my Rick Steves' guide to France and reading them some history of the famous monuments :) The afternoon at the Louvre was good as well. It was my third time to the Louvre, so even though we explored a few rooms that I swear I had never seen before (its soo huge!), the whole awe and amazement has started to wear off. Therefore, we decided to go to the statue section of the museum and spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures recreating the famous poses. The Centaur with an angel riding on his back was extremely challenging. We had a lot of fun, but after walking around in heals all day (had to dress up for the senate) I was so very happy to get on our train, come back to Nantes, and spend an evening relaxing with a book and some American Popcorn :)
The next day I woke up to a light rain. Here in March, the weather is insane. It down-pours for 10 minutes, and then you look up in the sky, its sunny, and you cant find any clouds, then 15 minutes later it rains, or hails (as it did on Sunday). But I happen to find a light rain at 50 degrees Farenheit perfect for running. So, completely energized, I just took off and for an hour I ran next to the river near my house, exploring some of the forest, finding a random field in the middle of nowhere. It was great :) I do not know where it came from, but it was one of those moments where you are just thrilled to be alive and I just took off sprinting up and down hills, loving the feel of wind and rain (or sometimes complete sunshine!) on face. Now, since I havn't been running regularly enough...waking up Sunday morning and feeling the effects of all this wasn't very nice. But it was a good afternoon.
Saturday night was movie night :) I went to a friend's house only to find they were planning on watching one of my favorite movies in the whole wide world : La Vie est Belle/Life is Beautiful/La Vita e Bella (but in French of course.) I brought some of my popcorn, which if I say so myself, was a hit..since most people havn't had it since they left the states. As for the movie, it was great...except that Bonjour, Bonjour Princesse just isn't as good as Bon Giorno Princepesa! There's something about that Italian! (If you have no idea what Im talking about....Go watch the movie)
Sunday morning was my first Nantes Market experience. France is famous for their open-air markets. and in other cities that I have been to, I have loved to walk through and see all the fresh fruits, veggies, cheese, meat, etc. However, I hadn't ever found one in Nantes. Turns out that there are a few bigs one, but just not on any of my normal routes. So since I arrived at Church Sunday morning only to find that the service for the day had been moved to an unknown location, we opted to go check out the Talensac Market. It was very fun and I am pretty sure you could find just about anything there. From the 80 cent crepe-lady to the dried candied fruits to flowers to shoes to almost full cows hanging in the meat sections! The great thing about markets though, is that its the reason why French and Italian food is so good! Its not exactly that they know how to cook a ton better than American chefs, its that ingredients are so fresh and delicious :)
For the afternoon, we had been given tickets to see a modern dance performance at the Theatre Graslin near my school. I was very excited because I walk by this theatre with huge roman collumns and stairs leading up to its doorway every day when I walk downtown, but had never seen the inside. However, it was not what I expected. The theatre was nicely decorated, but could only hold 300-400 people. But the dance was just crazy. I know that I am not an incredibly artistic person, and that sometimes I dont really care for abstract things because I just don't understand them, but this was just nuts. For the first act, 3 people pretty much just ran around the stage while one man sang an opera-like solo. While trying to keep from falling asleep, I thought to myself...I'm pretty sure I could do that, and I havn't been in dance lessons since I was 4. The second one seemed like it was representing a dream-state (as one man started off wearing a goat mask), and although I didn't understand a thing, at least there was technique. However, as the french are much more comfortable with nakedness in general, it was a bit odd to watch a dance where the two woman were wearing dresses that only covered half of their chests. All in all though, I guess I can now say I've gone to a french theater! and at least its a funny memory...This has truley been a week of cultural events.
One last thing before I go. I recently found out that I got into a Research Experience for Undergraduates at Georgetown! So I beleive that is where I will be spending most of my summer. I know I wrote earlier about the stress of finding an internship, and its an incredible releif to know this far ahead of time that I have a job and will be getting some valuable experience to help me decide on grad school! So now, I just have to keep praying that Jim will get one in D.C. as well :)
Well, it seems that my time here isn't going to slow down much, as there is SO much on my schedule! This weekend, we are going to see the famous Normandy beaches of WWII which I have really wanted to see and I think will be very moving. Then, Monday my brother Scott is coming to visit me for a few days! Later that week, I am taking my exam for Certification in the French Language and then its Easter! So I apologize ahead of time if you don't hear from me for a while!
In the mean time, Have a great Palm Sunday and an Incredible Easter! He is Risen! :)
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