Catching Up

Tuesday I cried at school because I got a big huge care package from home. Its the first mail I've gotten that wasn't tickets, and the first real sentiment I've seen from home other than the three times we've used the webcams. They sent this giant box of goldfish with three cereal bags full, plus a box of flavor blasted goldfish. I also got a bag of hershey's treasures, the regular assorted care package stuff i get from the mom's at home (including burts bees pomegranate chapstick, which is AMAZING), AND a giant stuffed Eeyore who now sleeps with me. Plus there was a really cute card...its a little kitten in a witches hat with a cape, sitting on a closed toilet. On the inside, it says "at the cat's halloween party, it was Arthur's job to guard the punch bowl". Isn't that adorable!? I thought it was.

Wednesday I had a complete breakdown while I was at school. I was on the computers, double checking all of my dates and prices for my trip when I realized that I had booked my flight all the way through to Oslo, instead of stopping in Copenhagen. That was okay, I just had to cancel the boat that I'd booked that went from Copenhagen to Oslo. Then I figured out that the dates on one of my hostels and my train ticket from Oslo to Bergen were wrong. Top that off with the fact that I hadn't heard from my best friend in days, and, well, I ended up in Madame Rouchet's office bawling into some kleenex. Incidentally, Madame Rouchet is the French version of Professor McGonnegal. Seriously. I explained things about the ticket and a little bit about you, and she told me that everything would be fine, and just kind of talked me through it. I ended up staying for classes, I had very seriously been thinking about going home and just burying myself under the covers. I went into grammar and we got our midterms (from Monday) back...and I failed. Literally, actually, failed.

Anyway, after losing it all over again, I had one of those, well, tomorrow has to be better moments. And Thursday? It ROCKED. We had our Halloween party at school....I went as Hermoine. I wasn't going to wear a costume, so I'd just dressed up. But then I was trying on necklaces with my outfit, and the thought struck me, so I wore a zip-up sweatshirt over a t-shirt like she does in the third movie and tried (tried being the operative word) to make my hair curly. The party itself was okay, you know me, I'm not really a huge partier. BUUUT....afterwards was the release of the 7th Harry Potter book in French....and I went to a book release party!!

It was SO much fun! We found a library that had this whole big party set up outside. There were four adults in costumes that stood as the heads of houses, and they pulled us in to get sorted and play a trivia game. I got put into Hufflepuff by myself, and it was SOOO hard! All of the names in French are different! Plus, trying to understand the question, think of the answer, then think of how to respond in French was just plain mean. My team lost, but we still got a free bag of really yummy chocolates. Caitlin and Christine, who haven't even read all of the books, were on Gryffindor and they won! They both got these huge boxes of really really fancy chocolates, it was really funny! We kind of milled around for awhile, the head of Gryffindor came over and we had a lovely conversation with her about the books and idiomatic expressions in French and English. Sky, my husband! Hahah sorry. Anyway, at 11:30 they started another round of trivia..but this time there was a big group of Chinese students there, who spoke English but not French, so we helped translate for them! My team cheated a little bit, because my two hadn't read any of the books, had only watched the movies, so now that I'd heard some of the questions I knew how to answer so I'd feed them the answers. Oh well! Then we all counted down to midnight, and two men carried out this big thing under a blanket, and at midnight they whipped off the blanket and it was about 12 of the books on a stand. We all clapped and whistled, then I went in and bought one!! It even came in its own really awesome bag. We made our way back to the bus, and ran into some other IES people. My friend Ben and his friend Brooke were there, and a little tipsy but funny for it. She had a ring that looks like the one from the book, and I had my horcrux, it was awesome. We all hopped on the bus together, and I stood with them. They were talking about what they'd had to drink, and I mentioned that I've now officially had about a dozen alcoholic beverages in my life. Brooke looked at Ben and said "awwwwww, she's soooo cute. Can we keep her?". It was pretty hilarious.

Friday my host mom came home, she's been out of town visiting her mother since Tuesday. She literally set out tea....fancy tea pot, fancy cups on saucers, little cookies, the works, just for she and I so we could catch up. It was so sweet!! We had a really nice discussion. Its things like that that make me feel like I am getting a lot better with my French.

Today my host parents, their 2..6? year old son Alex and I went to their "oceanside house"...it used to be the servants quarters for the castle that was in their family. How crazy is that? It is literally right next to the ocean. Right next to it. The tide was out when we got there, so we grabbed some buckets and went "fishing" for oysters, clams, and snailish things. Then, of course, for lunch we had raw oysters and snail-ish things. Hah! They were really good! After lunch my host mom and I walked down to the center of the little town, where she bought me a cone of supposedly world-famous ice cream. We took some time to walk back, and once again it was really nice to feel comfortable talking to her. Once we got back, I sat by the fire with a cup of tea for about an hour, reading Harry Potter while my host mom went to visit some relatives. It was wonderful to just sit and relax by the fire with good tea, an amazing book, and the tide coming in outside the window. Then we loaded the car back up, came back home, and had the rest of the seafood for dinner! AND I don't have any class tomorrow! Normally I've got grammar on Mondays, but my prof is also a teacher at a technical high school in the city, and its their vacation this week too so she's out of town. Oh, and not this Friday, but the Friday prochain I'm going to a football match here in town!! Bwahahaha! This week started out stinky but now IT ROCKS!!! YAY FOR GOOD WEEKS!! (PLUS: I've definitely LOST weight since coming here, probably because I'm actually consistent with working out, but who actually comes to France, eats well, and loses weight? I DO!!)

The Day of Minor (Major) Panic Attacks

Alright, I have a confession to make. Tuesday after a really really fun conversation club, Alison, Caitlin and I broke the code of Americans studying in France.....and ate at Subway for dinner. But it was SOO good! And there were cookies!! It was nice to have something familiar. Tuesday was kind of a day of familiarity, both with subway and with the AMAZING care package I got from home, full of boxes of Goldfish, red vines, chocolate, note pads, and a really really adorable stuffed Eeyore. Yay!

This morning after my European Union class I got online to double and triple check the timing for my upcoming voyage. What I found was both terrifying and mystifying. I had, instead of booking my flight from Paris to Copenhagen, booked it from Paris straight to Oslo. Okay, I thought, I can handle this. I, still fairly calmly, canceled my boat reservation from Copenhagen to Oslo. At this point I decided to go through every reservation and just make sure everything was in order....and I'm glad I did. I discovered that both my Oslo hotel and my train from Oslo to Bergen were booked for the wrong days. I was completely mystified by this. I triple checked my calender and made sure that it said the right day when I made the reservations. This continued to baffle me after I got home for the night. I took a quick look at the calender I'd made myself two weeks ago to see what time tomorrow's Halloween party is, and realized my mistake. When I made the calender, I somehow pushed all of the dates backwards by a day. AAAAH!! The panic was really setting in. I sent a slightly hysterical message to my friend Chelsea who I'm meeting in Bergen, Norway, then started taking deep breaths. There would be a way to fix this, I knew there would. I started skimming the Rick Steve's website looking for aid or inspiration, and the latter struck. It is called "Norway in a Nutshell", and it is, I think, going to be the highlight of my trip. It is a combination train/bus/boat/tram trip across the "backbone" of Norway, through the fjords and mountains. I AM SO EXCITED. The even better news is, once I canceled my old reservations and made new hostel reservations for the two nights in Oslo, I ended up still saving money, even with the boats cancellation fee. YAY!! Here is the official, triple checked, not going to change, set in stone (hah I shouldn't say that) plan:

Tuesday: Classes then travel!
8:45 train from Nantes to Paris
Check into Woodstock Hostel overnight

Wednesday: Oslo
5:30 Hop on metro to Charles de Gaulle (or take a taxi, I'll ask the hostel people which is better)
7:00 Flight from Paris to Copenhagen
9:55 Flight from Copenhagen to Oslo
11:00 arrive Oslo
Check into Anker Hostel (recommended by Rick Steves) for two nights

Thursday: More Oslo
Take all afternoon Wednesday and all day Thursday to tour Oslo, including Folkemuseum!

Friday: Norway in a Nutshell Tour
8:11 Train from Oslo to Myrdal
1:00 Tram from Myrdal to Flam
3:10 Boat from Flam to Gudvangen
4:55 Bus from Guvangen to Voss
5:53 Train from Voss to Bergen
Arrive Bergen 7:05pm - Meet Chelsea!!
And maybe still that night, visit the floibanen tram that goes up the mountain!

Saturday: Bergen!
Spend all day bugging Chelsea, seeing her University and Bergen!

Sunday:
9:15 Flight from Bergen to Copenhagen
10:55 Flight form Copenhagen to Paris
1:15 Arrive Paris
3:00 Train from Paris to Nantes
Arrive Nantes 5:07

I really am feeling a lot more comfortable about this plan. The only trick is I need to make reservations for the first portion of the Norway in a Nutshell tour, but the rest is all taken care of. I'm sorry if this blog stresses anybody out, I promise I really can take care of myself. Norway is a very, very safe country, I'll make sure to keep my passport and money safe, and I'll take lots of pictures. This is me, trying to be an adult. I made some mistakes, but now I've fixed them and came up with a plan that I like even better. I'm a lot less rushed, and have more time to see more of what I want. Not that I didn't want to see Copenhagen, but I feel like Norway is more of where my focus was.

In case you're still worried, here are a couple quotes from Rick Steves (the tour guide superman whose Paris book was absolutely wonderful):
1. Norwegians are talented linguists. In Norway, the language barrier is just a speed bump. I speak only English and of all the places I've worked (shooting TV shows, leading tour groups, and researching guidebooks), communicating in Norway has been a breeze. Because Norwegians generally shift to English without missing a beat, it's tough to pick up any Norwegian. Still, it's important (and fun) to learn a few polite words.

2. While there are fine tours, Norway is so well-organized and uncrowded that it's one of the easiest places in Europe to tour on your own. If you're inclined to explore Norway independently, do it.

He also has a really neat quote from an article talking about Norwegian heritage.
"Thoughtful travel shows us where we came from and who we are. It reminds us that we share this planet with six billion equally precious people. While much international travel exaggerates the differences between Us and Them, I've spent my adult life teaching travel "through the back door"...traveling like a temporary local, eager to try out new ways of living and to come home with a broader perspective — as a citizen of the planet."

Alright off of that subject. I've gotten two of the three midterms I've taken back. The EU midterm went....it wasn't great but it was better than I expected. The grammar midterm though...that went a lot worse than I'd thought. I'm going to make an appointment with her to sit down and go over it, but she wants us to correct the mistakes ourselves and bring them back to class on Friday. I definitely will. I already looked at it, and most of the errors were rules I thought went one way but actually were different, so hopefully once I know the rules down pat, and can recite them in a high stress situation, I'll be good. I only have one other midterm, and that will be for Atlantic World. That's not until after break though, so I'll worry about it then. Today our class took a field trip, we went up to the highest point in the city, looked at some murals dedicated to the Acadiens of Canada, and had class outdoors. It was quite nice, and I know now how to get to the Jules Verne museum and the planetarium, both of which Alison and I (and whoever else decides to tag along) are going to on Friday. Friday's have officially been dedicated as our museum days.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day too. I've only got one class (yay!!) but after I go running I'm going to sit down and redo my test. That's not the exciting part though. Tomorrow night IES is hosting a Halloween Party! I'm kind of bummed that my host family can't come, my mom is out of town and my dad works late, but it'll still be fun. Plus, I'm going to come as a wizard, which will lead perfectly into...........the release of the LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK....in FRENCH!! I'm really excited. We're all going to go to a bookstore for the big party, and it will be fabulous. I'm really excited (see picture if you don't believe me!)

Halfway done or halfway over?

So on my facebook profile I have several different countdowns leading up to the important events in my life. Tomorrow is my Palestine midterm. Three days and some change until both the Scrubs season premiere and the release of the French version of Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort. In eight days I'll be going to Norway (more on that in a bit). Nothing really exciting happens (except my unplanned weekend trips) but in 28 days my first "devoir" paper is due in Palestine. I've got two more papers due over the next fourteen days, then the next big thing is the start of final exams on December 14th. The point of all of this is the next number: In 60 days, I'm coming home. Exactly two months until I'm on an airplane heading back to the states, just in time for Christmas. Some days its a feeling of...I can't wait to be home, when am I going to be back somewhere where I'm actually comfortable. Not that I'm uncomfortable here, it is just so much work every single day. Yesterday my family had guests over for Sunday dinner. I hadn't been downstairs before the meal started, because I was studying for my grammar midterm that I had this morning. That meant that I hadn't spoken French at all that morning, and the catch is, it normally takes me about a half hour to warm up and actually get comfortable talking. As a result, I basically sat there, answered in very simple phrases when I was spoken to, and followed the conversation as well as I could. It was pretty embarrassing, I'm sure they thought I was an idiot. It will be quite a bit of a relief to be home, where I don't have to work so hard just to have a simple conversation. On top of that, I feel like I'm...I don't know not intruding, but not exactly finding my place in this home. My family is wonderful, but they don't really have a family room, someplace to just hang out. They have the kitchen, but the stools get put up on the table if you're not eating. They have their fancy parlor, but the doors stay shut. Upstairs there is a couch, but there is no outlet for my laptop when I need to work on my computer. As a result I'm spending a ton of time in my room. But I don't know where else to go, other than staying at school longer. I might start doing that. Then today, when I got home I put some water on to boil to make my lunch. I had just put the pasta in when my host mother came in and I think told me that she was going to clean as soon as I was done because Jean-Noel was coming home for lunch and she was running behind. Basically, I was in her way. Then instead of grabbing my salad and dressing and fruit from the fridge, I just went upstairs to stay out of her way and she told me that she thinks I should start eating at the university restaurant more often because its a more balanced meal. I tried to explain that this was kind of the exception, then told her about my family's halloween party last night and the costumes that my folks had worn, and how nice it was to have gotten to talk to them all online...to which she told me that it'd been really loud, and that I'd probably kept Aurlien awake. I feel like everything I'm doing all of the sudden is making her angry, and I have no idea how to fix it!

But, the good news is there is a break in site. A week from tomorrow I will be starting my "Grand Norwegian Adventure". Here's the plan:
Tuesday (30th)
After class I'm hustling down to the train station and hopping on the 6:45 train to Paris. That'll put me in the city at a little before 9, so I'll just head straight to the hostel that I booked for the night.

Wednesday (31st)
I'm going to see what time the metro starts running, and if its not this early I'm going to take a taxi to the airport because my plane leaves from Paris at 7:00 in the morning. Crazy early, I know, but then I'll have time to enjoy the sights in Wonderful Copenhagen. I touch down just before 9:00 in the morning, and then have the whole day to wander around the city, seeing what there is to see. Sometime within the next week I'm going to plan out and print off a self-guided walking tour so I make sure I don't miss anything. Then at 5:00 that night I'm going to hop on a boat that'll take me from Copenhagen up to Oslo, Norway!

Thursday (1st)
The boat lands at 9:00 in the morning, and the first thing I am going to do is hop on the bus and go out to the museum peninsula! Its a whole little part of the town that boasts almost a dozen different museums, including the Folkemuseum, which is the oldest open air museum in the world (which, in case you're wondering, is the same type of museum as the one I worked in this summer!). I have the entire day to spend wandering around museums, then that night I have a room booked at a hostel in the center of the city.

Friday (2nd)
Here I'll have time to finish up whatever museums I didn't see the day before, and also take a tour of the main parts of town. I was really looking at the bus tours, but I'm having a hard time finding anything that runs in the wintertime! My only deadline will be to be at the station by 4:07, when my train leaves Oslo for Bergen. I'll get into Bergen (after seeing some of the magnificent country!) at 10:30 that night, and my friend Chelsea is going to pick me up at the station!

Saturday (3rd)
I've got all day Saturday to spend with Chelsea, seeing her school and the sights in Bergen. Not sure what she's got planned, but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Sunday (4th)
Sunday mornign my flight leaves at 9:15 from Bergen back to Paris (with a stopover in Copenhagen). I am scheduled to arrive back in Paris at 1:15, then at 5:00 I'll take the train back to Nantes, and my host mom has already said that she'll pick me up at the airport. I think its going to be a crazy but really fun handful of days!!!

National Pride?

Last Thursday, the city of Nantes hosted a little "fete" for the first year university students in the city, which meant we all got to go to. It was held in the Lieu, which has an interesting story all to itself. It was a baked goods production warehouse that specialized in some famous cookie that is known round the world but whose name I can't remember. There's a pretty tower, and the building itself was shaped like a croissant. Oh, don't you love the French? Anyway, there was music and some carnival type games and a bar that didn't open for two hours after the party started. Hmm. Anyway. You walked in the door and gave them your ticket, they gave you a wristband and asked you where you were from. If you didn't say France, they sent you over to another booth where you collected a name tag with your home country. Etats-Unis. Somebody in the group made a crack about it being more of a conversation stopper than a conversation starter, and it really made me start to think. I ended up putting my tag on the inside of my jacket. One of the other girls in the group asked me why I'd done that, and I tried to make some joke about wanting to be approached because I was cute, not because I'm an American. She almost literally blew up at me for being unpatriotic and not proud of my country, went on for a good five minutes about it all. She was going on about the current regime and to be honest I zoned her out after awhile. At the time I just kind of stared at her, but now I wish I would have asked her why she was so proud of the United States. Don't get me wrong. I am not ashamed of being from the United States of America. There are some things I'm very proud of. I love being from Iowa. But honestly I'm not sure I'm proud of it either. Having studied some of our nations history, I see many things within even the last fifty years that I am not proud of. Do you know how hard it is to explain how our government elected a man that lost the popular election? Or why a nation that was founded by refugees and immigrants is literally building fences to keep new ones out? Or how the United States has completely undermined the United Nations? Big sigh. There are things I am proud of. But there are a lot of things that we are not doing right. I didn't not wear the tag because I'm ashamed of being from the USA. I didn't wear it because I didn't want to have to stand there and defend policies I don't agree with. I don't think the fact that I'm an American is the most interesting or important thing about me, and it is definitely not something I feel the need to advertise, especially when I am in another part of the world.

I guess I'll apologize for this blog, if anyone takes offense to it. I know that my relationship with the young woman mentioned above is now more than a little strained, which was of course not my intent. I put the question of national pride to some of my friends at lunch yesterday, and none of them had an answer for me either. I think it is one of those ongoing questions that you never really come up with a satisfactory answer for.

As for the rest of my life, things are going. These last two weeks have been rough, with the last few days being exceptionally difficult. I've been having serious problems sleeping, including the night before my European Union midterm. I have now lost count of the number of nights I've stared at the ceiling until well past 3:00am. I felt like I was sufficiently prepared for my EU midterm. Its a topic that I find very interesting, and so studying was more interesting than work. But when I sat down in the classroom and got handed the essay questions, everything I knew fell out of my head. It is quite possible that I completely failed that test, which I haven't done in a long time. I got the institutions of the Council of Europe and the European Commission for Steel and Carbon completely mixed up, and couldn't remember the date of the Treaty of Paris. ARgh. The one really bright spot this week was getting to see Emily Friedman, a friend from Wartburg AND home. She took her fall break in Paris and was flying back to London out of Nantes, so I bought her some lunch. It was really nice to see a familiar face.

This weekend I don't have any plans other than studying. I have my grammar midterm on Monday and my Palestine midterm on Tuesday. I slept a lot better last night, so I'm hoping I've broken out of that. I'm probably going to head to Centre Ville later today or tomorrow to look for a new pair of black flats, the ones that I've had forever and wear all the time have literally lost their sole. Hah. I hope everyone from home is doing well, I really miss everybody. Let me know!

Crunchy Leaves

You know, you miss your family and your friends every day, but sometimes its the little things in life that really sneak up and grab you. Today I was walking from the bus stop back to my house, wading through a pile of fallen leaves, when the feeling hit me. One of the things I love about Wartburg this time of year is watching the trees turn and the leaves fall. There is one big tree behind the Complex that is the brightest color orange you can imagine, and its silly, I know, but I miss that tree. I've walked by it almost daily for two years now, and this year I won't be there to watch it change. To top that off, homecoming is this weekend, and I have so many great memories associated with that weekend in the past. I'm bummed I'm going to miss it.

At the same time, I've been keeping busy here. Last weekend the IES students all went on a tour of the castles along the Loire. Some of them I saw during May Term, but a handful were new to me. We started at the Chateau (French for castle) de Serrant. (Here's their website if you're interested in visiting it: http://www.chateau-serrant.net/anglais/accueil/accueil.htm) It is considered to be the best furnished of the more than 300 castles in the Loire Valley. Every time the castle has been sold, its furniture has been sold with it. The last man that bought if founded a society of bibliophiles in France, so you walk into the castles library and want to cry. It was like the library from Beauty in the Beast come to life. The main parts of the castle itself were interesting enough, but what was really neat were the tunnels, dug by the German army during World War 2, from the house to one of the outbuildings. They still contain the original electric wiring (sans current, of course) that the German's put up.

The next stop was Azay-le-Rideau, though we actually had a pretty decent sized lunch break before our actual visit to the castle. I bought a croque monsieur (I make them better!), a coke, and joined Alison, Caitlin, Derek and Christine for a little impromptu picnic. After we were finished eating, the general consensus was that we were still hungry, so we bopped into a nearby patiserrie for baked goods. I'd had a kind of rough week, so Alison and I both decided to splurge and get two apiece. I got a very delicious carmelized pastry something that is really hard to explain, and what resembled either a giant peach or the backside of a very small child. We wandered through the back streets of the little town until we were supposed to meet, then got our tickets to go into the castle. I decided to take some time for myself, and wandered around looking at the different rooms in the castle. It was pretty small, but had some neat windows (see photo). After I was done touring the inside I took a really nice stroll around the grounds. A little stream that winds into the Loire runs right behind the castle, and through the trees you could see a second "little" manor. I had a really nice time just sitting on my bench, watching my fellow Americans toss a frisbee around, listening to the river.

The next castle we went to is the place I want to live in when I grow up. Its called Villandry, and I want it for my own. It has the absolute most gorgeous gardens I have ever seen....even better than Versailles. We didn't get to go into the castle itself, so I guess I can't claim that part, but the gardens were beautiful and the view was great. They were laid out in patterns, and the whole first part was made with vegetables! Not something you'd expect, but cabbage can be artful. There were pears on the trees that were bigger than any I've ever seen before, and they were SO tempting. There were arbors with big fat grapes hanging down, a little lake, fountains, even two "scenic viewpoints".

I've still got a lot more to type, but I'm going to try getting some sleep. I've got a pretty open day tomorrow so hopefully I'll fill you in on the rest of the neat stuff going on in my life then!

Theatre

So last night Alison and I, along with probably 20 other IES students, went to the play "Les Trois Souers", or "The Three Sisters" at the Grand T Theatre. Turns out its actually like a block away from my house, I walked it in ten minutes wearing my black stilettos. The only bummer is that I've been wearing those shoes a lot, and I must put more pressure on my left foot, because the heel is already worn down to the nail!! Anyway, the play was very good, but difficult. They spoke quickly, plus I was in the back of the room. The women were very hard to hear, though the men weren't too bad. They were just hard to tell apart. Alison was in her element...whereas I loved the printing museum, she LOVED this. She's a theater major at Kenyon, but not an actress, she's much happy doing behind the scenes work or directing.

Today we had conversation club after a SUPER busy day of classes. Alison and I got paired off with two boys and three girls, who are studying everything from communications to engineering sciences. It was really hard to hear everybody because we were packed into a little tiny room with four other groups and had the windows open, but it was a really fun time. Julie (one of the assistants) passed out newspaper articles in both French and English which we took turns discussing in our respective languages. They talked about racial slurs on primetime television, the international air band competition, the Nantes student who drowned in the Loire after drinking, and national regulations on children's backpacks. It was really fun. Afterwards, Christine went to eat with her family and Caitlin, Alison and I went to get kebabs..which are turkish sandwiches and very good. The restaurant guy was flirting with Caitlin, and so brought us samples of the meat and their special white sauce....which was ranch dressing. It was fun though!

Afterwards I made maybe not the smartest decision, but I didn't realize what time it was. I walked with Caitlin to Commerce, then walked back up to my normal bus stop, not realizing that it was late enough that we were on the night bus schedule. I walked past Derek as he was walking somewhere, but he and I are still a little bit on the fritz and he was flirting with the French girls from conversation club so I let him be. I ended up walking for about half of an hour along the route my bus normally takes. I figured I'd walk to the Cathedrale, the stop I KNOW has a night bus stop, then wait there or keep walking along my normal bus route. I lucked out though, at Place du Cirque there was a big crowd waiting at the night bus C and D stand. I take C, so I figured I might as well check to see when it came. According to the schedule, I'd missed the bus by 3 minutes, but there were a lot of people standing there and it said on the schedule that the C and D come right on top of each other. Plus, the buses are almost always at least three minutes late. Sure enough, a minute or so later up pulled Night Bus C. Woooo!! I was really afraid I'd have to walk home!

Musee de l'Imprimerie

Friday was an absolutely wonderful day! Alison and I went down to the Printing Museum that is in the Mediatheque, right by our school. I was a little worried that she would think it was kind of dull, I know not everybody gets as excited about museums as I do. Turns out we're a good match, she thought it was all really neat! The beginning of the museum is really just a collection of artifacts kind of spread willy-nilly behind glass cases. At this point, the French is pretty advanced, so we were really struggling to translate some of it. We ended up giving up at that point, and I explained what I could about what I saw. She seemed like she really appreciated it, she calls me her walking encyclopedia. The set-up of the museum was a little confusing. We walked out of the room with the cases and into what looked like a giant work room. After a couple of minutes of standing around looking lost, a woman came up to us and asked, in French of course, if we were there for a tour. We said yes, and she led us through the history of type, then the history of presses. It was really cool! The neat part for me was seeing the past and future of the type and presses that I used at Living History Farms. 1875 is a pretty specific year, so it was neat to see what had led up to and come from my machines!

The neatest part is when we got to see the process of creating etchings. The artist draws on a marble slab using a wax crayon, being extra careful so their hands never touch the surface of the stone. Once they've finished the drawing, it is taken over to the curing table. Two different powders are poured over the drawing, then oil. The process is repeated, then the drawing is wiped away. This process actually engraves the drawing into the stone. The ink is added, with turpentine spread around the parts where ink isn't wanted. A wheel, similar to the proof press at the farms, is pulled over the stone and paper and the image is transfered. The really neat part about all of this is that we got to see actual art being created. There were an English man and his wife there, and the man is an artist. He had drawn a design on the stone in record time, and they made six copies for him. Alison and I stood by to watch, and ended up doing some translating, which was really cool. Much harder, as you have to know specifics instead of just the general idea. Anyway, long story short, after the artist had signed and numbered all six copies, he gave one to the museum, one to Alison, and one to me!!!! I feel like I stole some great work of art, its so pretty! Alison and I agreed that it was a really awesome day. Yesterday I stayed home for the most part; took the dog on a walk, went on a run, got a ton of reading done. We were all supposed to meet as a group to watch the big rugby match together, like we did last week....but there wasn't anybody at the cathedral at the designated time. And, of course, I'd forgotten my cell phone. I checked the bar we'd gone to last time, then stood in front of the cathedral for about thirty minutes, but nobody showed up. I ended up hopping the 21/23 bus home, which takes the same route as the night bus and isn't too far away from my house. I figured I'd check to see when the next bus was. There was one three minutes after I got off, and one an hour and a half later. I gave it up for broke, walked home, and called Caitlin. She and Christine had gone out to dinner at the creperie we'd gone to earlier, and had gotten tied up. They'd tried to call, but, of course, I didn't have my phone. I ended up watching the match with my dad, kinda. Everybody (myself included) expected New Zealand to win, they have been the overall favorites....but big surprise, FRANCE WON!! WOO!! It was really awesome to watch. My dad was downstairs, and every time France scored he'd come running up the stairs, yelling at Charlotte. It was really funny. Today at lunch (which was AMAZING, carrots that tasted like they were from pot roast, rice, chicken, and mushrooms, plus an apple tart!) he kept hitting the table and singing "we are the champions" in French and "La vie est belle". It was really funny. And you know what? He's right. Life is pretty darn beautiful.

Bummer

You know what the big bummer about living in a house that isn't my own? When I get munchy at 1-:45, I can't sneak downstairs and raid the fridge because 1) my host parents are already asleep and 2) nothing in the fridge is actually mine.....not true. I'm making a run for it.

Mont Saint Michel

So Saturday we (the students of IES) day-tripped up to Mont Saint Michel and the city of Saint Malo. Ben and I agreed to meet at the bus stop for the 7:00 bus. I had to jog a little bit, but I was there on time....he wasn't. Turns out Geoff takes our bus too, so I sat down next to him and we watched Ben come around the corner as we pulled away. We ended up being way early, but I'd rather be early than late.

We all piled into the buses and set off for Mont Saint Michel. It was a really pretty drive, like a hillier version of home with lots of fog and some castles sprinkled throughout. It was about a two hour drive, not too bad, and most people slept or listened to their respective ipods. I had tried to give Christine and Caitlin my ipod with Grey's on it, but for some reason it didn't copy over.

We took one stop for bathroom breaks, it was actually a really fancy rest stop. They'd said on the bus not to buy anything, but EVERYBODY did, except I didn't even bring money in with me and I was starving. We loaded back up, then drove another handful of minutes to the coast. We could see the island from a ways off, its pretty high up in the air. We got up close, then almost literally ran up the side of this miniature mountain because we were pressed for time. We picked up our tickets and got to wander around the monastery for awhile.

The thing with Mont Saint Michel is that its an island, and is only accessible when the tide it out. When the tide is in, all of the roads are covered with water. You have to climb up a really long, steep road past really expensive tourist shops and restaurants to get to the abbey, which to be honest is a little bit of a let down. I'm chalking this one up as one of those spots that probably used to be cool way back before anybody went there, but now is so tourist filled you almost have to crawl over people to get anywhere.

After we'd left the monastery, we went down to get some lunch. I bought a croque monsieur that was not very good, but about all you could find for less than five euro. We ate, poked our heads into shops, and even bought a little bit. I got a Christmas gift for my Grandma, I think she'll like it.

We once again piled back into the bus and drove for another half hour or so to Saint Malo, an ancient walled city. It now proudly proclaims that is hosted villainous pirates and was the departure point for Jacques Cartier when he left to discover Canada (which, incidentally, I'm learning about in my France in the Atlantic World class!) It is still very touristy, but bigger so you're not running over people all the time. We walked out to one of the islands, just a little thing, but its actually the burial ground of Chateaubriand, a famous French writer. There is a plaque that says something about him wanting to hear nothing but the wind and the waves...poor man, instead he gets teenagers sneaking off with bottles of cheap wine and old couples making out on the side of the island. It was pretty funny.

All in all it was a good day, but a busy one. I definitely slept really well Saturday night. Sunday my mom made crepes for dinner...yum! I had one with chocolate, one with sugar and butter, and one with jam! My mom is an amazing cook, the way things are going there is no way I'm going to fit into my clothes when I get back!! I'm trying to run, but it just seems to make me more hungry!

You should be able to follow this link to look at my pictures from this last weekend: http://wartburg.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015991&l=d6ade&id=123700029

And hopefully this one will take you to the rest of the pictures I've taken on the trip thus far! http://wartburg.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015653&l=95b9a&id=123700029