...a French Secret Agent.
Er. Well, he works for the Ministry of Defense in Paris, which is close enough.
Suddenly all the turtlenecks and long absences make a lot more sense
Thursday, April 7, 2011
I called it...
...my host dad is totally, wait for it....
...a French Secret Agent.
Er. Well, he works for the Ministry of Defense in Paris, which is close enough.
Suddenly all the turtlenecks and long absences make a lot more sense
...a French Secret Agent.
Er. Well, he works for the Ministry of Defense in Paris, which is close enough.
Suddenly all the turtlenecks and long absences make a lot more sense
Saturday, April 2, 2011
So I really did intend to update before right now. I SWEAR.
But I just had other things to do, like read in French and be in class, procrastinate, and spend time outside.
I mean who wouldn't? It's been beautiful out.
But anyway. Where to begin?
Last weekend Betsy, Krisztina and I rented bikes and took a 20mile bike ride down La Maine and part of La Loire. It was absolutely gorgeous out and we got to see some really nice French countryside and even helped other bikers who had a flat tire! We ate a picnic lunch in a small town called Behuard; which was SO French. Cute adorable little houses. People strolling the tiny little streets and a really pretty church sitting on top of some sort of rock. It was adorable. Places like these make me fall in love with being in France all over again, when I'm feeling slightly disenchanted.
After our bike ride we were pretty much dead, but thought we were going to go biking on Sunday.
Wrong. It rained. And rained. And then it poured. Everyday until Friday.
Now to be fair, I'm not talking constant rain every second. But just enough rain where you really can't spend any large amounts of time outside or you'll get soaked. Bummer, right? There was a nice rain-break on Monday night though, so after our classes Betsy and I took the bikes our to Avrille (a suburb near Angers) so we could see where Betsy was supposed to live. This should have been a pretty easy 30 min bike trip, but it turned into kind of an insane uphill work out. We got lost on the way to Avrille and ended up near Ile St. Aubin, and had to bike up this GIANT hills to get to the village. Luckily the landscape was great. And we saw HORSES and found the entry way to the island (which we missed last time we were there).
Bonus about going to Avrille? We not only got to find an incredibly cute little town but also we totally found, took a picture of the house Betsy was supposed to live in, and found the RIGHT way back home that was gracefully downhill and only took 30 min ;) (Also afterwards we had great food from McDoner. Awesome!)
As you can probably guess, because it rained everyday last week not a lot happened. The rain put me a tiny bit in a bad mood all week, along with the realization that I'm just about halfway through with my study abroad experience. This has been incredibly bittersweet for me and it's been a real endeavor to try and figure out how to deal with it. On one hand I'm loving France but on the other I really do miss everyone at home and will be really glad to see everyone again. Plus I have a lot to look forward to with next year with it being my last year in college. Whoa, that came up too fast. It's exciting, but it's a lot. On the other hand, I LOVE France - I love my friends here, and the food and my host family. It's going to be rough leaving it all behind and I don't want to get so caught up in the next year that I shortchange my time here. Bleh.
Anyway, even though it has been raining and I've been angsty, it has been a pretty good week. Thursday's dinner with our host mom was fantastically fun. We had some really delicious casserole and a great bread-pudding, cherry and marzipan desert that I took a photo of (my host mom thought that was hilarious). After dinner we watched two reports on TV with our host mom, which was...interesting. Don't get me wrong it was a lot of fun, French tv is great and so was the company. What I mean to say is, we watched a report on Burlesque dancers in France, and then one about AIDS in Romania.....
Not exactly what I had in mind for a typical Thursday night program. The burlesque one was really entertaining though. They talked about American burlesque dancers which caused some serious laughs for all of us.
Also on Thursday we received some awesome pink carton paper stuff to replace our missing shutters in my room and the bathroom. The shutters got repaired last Friday and have been gone since, because the guys forgot to paint them. Since then Betsy and I have been hanging a towel over the window in the bathroom for privacy and I've been veryyy careful in my room. We're supposed to have shutters sometime next week though. Phew.
So yesterday it was finally nice out again. Betsy and I accidentally walked to Lac de Maine and had just an awesome time. I wore flipflops because it was sooo nice out - we discovered a cool sustainable garden too, super bonus. Later that night we watched Beauty and the Beast online and just chilled for most of the night after some time spent at the bar with friends. Today we met up with Heather and Mary Beth and booked all our hostels for Spring break which was a huge load off of our chest, and then walked downtown to the Carnaval (Basically a huge parade in the streets). It was really great and strange and nothing like it would have been in America. The parade was followed by this dance routine thing in the middle of Centre-Ville. I had no idea what was going on, I think most everyone knew at least some of the dance though.
Great times in Angers :)
But I just had other things to do, like read in French and be in class, procrastinate, and spend time outside.
I mean who wouldn't? It's been beautiful out.
But anyway. Where to begin?
Last weekend Betsy, Krisztina and I rented bikes and took a 20mile bike ride down La Maine and part of La Loire. It was absolutely gorgeous out and we got to see some really nice French countryside and even helped other bikers who had a flat tire! We ate a picnic lunch in a small town called Behuard; which was SO French. Cute adorable little houses. People strolling the tiny little streets and a really pretty church sitting on top of some sort of rock. It was adorable. Places like these make me fall in love with being in France all over again, when I'm feeling slightly disenchanted.
After our bike ride we were pretty much dead, but thought we were going to go biking on Sunday.
Wrong. It rained. And rained. And then it poured. Everyday until Friday.
Now to be fair, I'm not talking constant rain every second. But just enough rain where you really can't spend any large amounts of time outside or you'll get soaked. Bummer, right? There was a nice rain-break on Monday night though, so after our classes Betsy and I took the bikes our to Avrille (a suburb near Angers) so we could see where Betsy was supposed to live. This should have been a pretty easy 30 min bike trip, but it turned into kind of an insane uphill work out. We got lost on the way to Avrille and ended up near Ile St. Aubin, and had to bike up this GIANT hills to get to the village. Luckily the landscape was great. And we saw HORSES and found the entry way to the island (which we missed last time we were there).
Bonus about going to Avrille? We not only got to find an incredibly cute little town but also we totally found, took a picture of the house Betsy was supposed to live in, and found the RIGHT way back home that was gracefully downhill and only took 30 min ;) (Also afterwards we had great food from McDoner. Awesome!)
As you can probably guess, because it rained everyday last week not a lot happened. The rain put me a tiny bit in a bad mood all week, along with the realization that I'm just about halfway through with my study abroad experience. This has been incredibly bittersweet for me and it's been a real endeavor to try and figure out how to deal with it. On one hand I'm loving France but on the other I really do miss everyone at home and will be really glad to see everyone again. Plus I have a lot to look forward to with next year with it being my last year in college. Whoa, that came up too fast. It's exciting, but it's a lot. On the other hand, I LOVE France - I love my friends here, and the food and my host family. It's going to be rough leaving it all behind and I don't want to get so caught up in the next year that I shortchange my time here. Bleh.
Anyway, even though it has been raining and I've been angsty, it has been a pretty good week. Thursday's dinner with our host mom was fantastically fun. We had some really delicious casserole and a great bread-pudding, cherry and marzipan desert that I took a photo of (my host mom thought that was hilarious). After dinner we watched two reports on TV with our host mom, which was...interesting. Don't get me wrong it was a lot of fun, French tv is great and so was the company. What I mean to say is, we watched a report on Burlesque dancers in France, and then one about AIDS in Romania.....
Not exactly what I had in mind for a typical Thursday night program. The burlesque one was really entertaining though. They talked about American burlesque dancers which caused some serious laughs for all of us.
Also on Thursday we received some awesome pink carton paper stuff to replace our missing shutters in my room and the bathroom. The shutters got repaired last Friday and have been gone since, because the guys forgot to paint them. Since then Betsy and I have been hanging a towel over the window in the bathroom for privacy and I've been veryyy careful in my room. We're supposed to have shutters sometime next week though. Phew.
So yesterday it was finally nice out again. Betsy and I accidentally walked to Lac de Maine and had just an awesome time. I wore flipflops because it was sooo nice out - we discovered a cool sustainable garden too, super bonus. Later that night we watched Beauty and the Beast online and just chilled for most of the night after some time spent at the bar with friends. Today we met up with Heather and Mary Beth and booked all our hostels for Spring break which was a huge load off of our chest, and then walked downtown to the Carnaval (Basically a huge parade in the streets). It was really great and strange and nothing like it would have been in America. The parade was followed by this dance routine thing in the middle of Centre-Ville. I had no idea what was going on, I think most everyone knew at least some of the dance though.
Great times in Angers :)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Same Changes
Let's play catch up shall we?
It's been a little over a week since I last wrote in here and so much has happened that...well you might get bored before you finish reading this entry. Sorry in advance. I promise to try and update a little more frequently so as to avoid long-winded/nonsensical entries.
Last week lots of different things happened. One of the main things that happened though was me going to the bar, Le Soft quite a bit with some friends, which was really fun. They have delicious sangria for cheap and the bartender is pretty nice which means occasionally our drinks have been either discounted or free. Also a lot of my friends got free hotdogs one night when they were there for a birthday - so that's kind of awesome. Also Soft has salsa dancing/lessons on Friday's so this weekend we're going to attempt to do that and also just hang out.
One of the nights we went out last week was, obviously, St. Patty's Day. A few things first, St. Patty's day is not celebrated like it is in the US - for example, wearing green is not a real big thing. My translation professor wore it, but he also speaks English with a perfect midwestern accent (which can be really weird), apparently speaks Spanish, is only like 25? and was at the bar on St. Patty's; so who knows really. Anyway, the point is the French don't give a damn about wearing green and I'm fairly certain a lot of them didn't even know it was St. Patty's day. HOWEVER, young french people do know that St. Patty's day means you go to the bar and drink. Which meant that Bressignay was FULL of students all Thursday night and the bars were packed. We got to Soft a bit early so we were able to find a good table upstairs where we thought we'd be able to pass a fairly calm night. A little while after we got there, some guys came in and sat down at the other tables in the room - no problems until one of the guys had a full on seizure. I'd never actually seen someone have a seizure before and I didn't really know what was going on for awhile because it was so loud in the bar and I mean a lot of people were pretty drunk in the bar. After our table realized what was going on we all stayed really quiet and calm and let the guys who were with him call the ambulance and take care of him. They knew exactly what they were doing which was really good, and everyone else in the bar was really respectful about the situation. The medics came a little while later and took the guy (who was waking up a little by then) to a hospital. The guys who were with him thanked us for being so good about the situation and said they'd buy us a round for being so nice. This never happened but I don't think that's really important.
Over the weekend Betsy and I went to La Baule which is a town on the Atlantic Coast for a nice day on the beach. This was a really really great experience and I'm glad I went. It was soooo nice to see the beach again after being deprived of Lake Michigan (or warm weather?) for so long. The water was still too cold for swimming but we put our feet in, and literally walked the beach for practically the whole day. The sand was literally like flour in some parts, except it sparkled (I'm serious, I couldn't make that up if I wanted to). Also most of the houses in La Baule were really cool looking - I'm taking super old/European it was great. I found my dream house at least 12 dozen times on each street. But! The best part about La Baule was the food. Apparently La Baule is known for "gaufres" which for all you American folk are WAFFLES. And as many of you know I LOVE WAFFLES, and ate them nearly every single day growing up before I'd go to school. So finding out that they're a specialty to this town cemented in my mind that I need to move to France and live in La Baule on the beach. Good plan, non?
As many of you probably knew, Sunday was the first day of Spring. This day usually doesn't mean a lot to me, being from Michigan where spring arrives sometime in mid April and we usually still have snow on the official first day. But in Angers, it really was springy! Which was GREAT. And it's been springy every day since then! I LOVE THIS. I could not have been more ready for nice weather. I've taken several long walks with friends across the river to this really nice grassy area and just hung out for a day, I've even gotten a tiny bit pink a couple of times! It's even been so nice that Betsy and I are going to rent bikes this weekend and go on a biketrip around Angers/the surrounding area! Awesome!
My dear friends. It's almost the end of March, which means I've nearly been in France for 2 months.
WHAT THE HELL!
I know I say this literally every time I write in this thing but seriously time is moving toooo fast. Sometimes I feel like I've only just arrived in France - there's still so much that I haven't seen or done that it seems literally unreal that it's been almost two months since my jet lagged arrival en la belle France. But then again, other times I feel like I've been here for ages. I have my own little nooks and places I like to shop at, parks I like to sit in, places I enjoy walking to, friends, etc. France is really starting to feel like, well, home in a way. And because of that even thinking about leaving it really makes me sad. But, it's ok I still have over 2 months to spend in this lovely country with lots of lovely people. I miss you all desperately at home.
Until next time!
It's been a little over a week since I last wrote in here and so much has happened that...well you might get bored before you finish reading this entry. Sorry in advance. I promise to try and update a little more frequently so as to avoid long-winded/nonsensical entries.
Last week lots of different things happened. One of the main things that happened though was me going to the bar, Le Soft quite a bit with some friends, which was really fun. They have delicious sangria for cheap and the bartender is pretty nice which means occasionally our drinks have been either discounted or free. Also a lot of my friends got free hotdogs one night when they were there for a birthday - so that's kind of awesome. Also Soft has salsa dancing/lessons on Friday's so this weekend we're going to attempt to do that and also just hang out.
One of the nights we went out last week was, obviously, St. Patty's Day. A few things first, St. Patty's day is not celebrated like it is in the US - for example, wearing green is not a real big thing. My translation professor wore it, but he also speaks English with a perfect midwestern accent (which can be really weird), apparently speaks Spanish, is only like 25? and was at the bar on St. Patty's; so who knows really. Anyway, the point is the French don't give a damn about wearing green and I'm fairly certain a lot of them didn't even know it was St. Patty's day. HOWEVER, young french people do know that St. Patty's day means you go to the bar and drink. Which meant that Bressignay was FULL of students all Thursday night and the bars were packed. We got to Soft a bit early so we were able to find a good table upstairs where we thought we'd be able to pass a fairly calm night. A little while after we got there, some guys came in and sat down at the other tables in the room - no problems until one of the guys had a full on seizure. I'd never actually seen someone have a seizure before and I didn't really know what was going on for awhile because it was so loud in the bar and I mean a lot of people were pretty drunk in the bar. After our table realized what was going on we all stayed really quiet and calm and let the guys who were with him call the ambulance and take care of him. They knew exactly what they were doing which was really good, and everyone else in the bar was really respectful about the situation. The medics came a little while later and took the guy (who was waking up a little by then) to a hospital. The guys who were with him thanked us for being so good about the situation and said they'd buy us a round for being so nice. This never happened but I don't think that's really important.
Over the weekend Betsy and I went to La Baule which is a town on the Atlantic Coast for a nice day on the beach. This was a really really great experience and I'm glad I went. It was soooo nice to see the beach again after being deprived of Lake Michigan (or warm weather?) for so long. The water was still too cold for swimming but we put our feet in, and literally walked the beach for practically the whole day. The sand was literally like flour in some parts, except it sparkled (I'm serious, I couldn't make that up if I wanted to). Also most of the houses in La Baule were really cool looking - I'm taking super old/European it was great. I found my dream house at least 12 dozen times on each street. But! The best part about La Baule was the food. Apparently La Baule is known for "gaufres" which for all you American folk are WAFFLES. And as many of you know I LOVE WAFFLES, and ate them nearly every single day growing up before I'd go to school. So finding out that they're a specialty to this town cemented in my mind that I need to move to France and live in La Baule on the beach. Good plan, non?
As many of you probably knew, Sunday was the first day of Spring. This day usually doesn't mean a lot to me, being from Michigan where spring arrives sometime in mid April and we usually still have snow on the official first day. But in Angers, it really was springy! Which was GREAT. And it's been springy every day since then! I LOVE THIS. I could not have been more ready for nice weather. I've taken several long walks with friends across the river to this really nice grassy area and just hung out for a day, I've even gotten a tiny bit pink a couple of times! It's even been so nice that Betsy and I are going to rent bikes this weekend and go on a biketrip around Angers/the surrounding area! Awesome!
My dear friends. It's almost the end of March, which means I've nearly been in France for 2 months.
WHAT THE HELL!
I know I say this literally every time I write in this thing but seriously time is moving toooo fast. Sometimes I feel like I've only just arrived in France - there's still so much that I haven't seen or done that it seems literally unreal that it's been almost two months since my jet lagged arrival en la belle France. But then again, other times I feel like I've been here for ages. I have my own little nooks and places I like to shop at, parks I like to sit in, places I enjoy walking to, friends, etc. France is really starting to feel like, well, home in a way. And because of that even thinking about leaving it really makes me sad. But, it's ok I still have over 2 months to spend in this lovely country with lots of lovely people. I miss you all desperately at home.
Until next time!
Monday, March 14, 2011
A quick recap.
This last weekend was my first weekend staying in Angers all month; I feel like this accurately explains the level of madness that has been rampant in my life over the last few weeks, haha. It was really good to just stay home for the most part and relax, recooperate, regroup and reorganize my life. Which I DESPERATELY needed to do.
Friday I said good bye to Andrea and her mom, which was really quite sad; they were A TON of fun in Angers, plus it's always nice to see a familar face. I didn't really realize how much I missed all of the people at home until they both were here and then had to leave. So that was sort of emotionally difficult, but bearable, because I mean, I'm in France - my life is made of awesome right now - I eat pastries on a daily basis. So I suppose I can miss you all for a little bit longer without going completely mental. Later Friday night I just lounged around at home, drank some wine and caught up on life until Betsy got home and then we watched part of Lars and the Real Girl. I say part because I ended up passing out because as many of you know, I sleep when I drink; and had drank just about a bottle of wine at that point.
Saturday was another great day, I woke up fairly late and made a real breakfast before heading out to the Marche at the Jardain du Mail for some window/stall? shopping. After that we grabbed some lunch and I went home to do some for real grocery shopping, which hadn't been done in AGES. Later I went out with some friends to Soft ( a bar in Angers) which was really really great. There were about 10+ of us in the backroom at the bar and nearly everyone was from the states, which was kind of bizarre but also pretty hilarious/great. It was like our tiny corner of America hidden inside of France. I a fantastic sangria, and also a shot that not only tasted like bubblegum and vodka, but came WITH bubblegum! (I'm fairly convinced that it was the best thing ever.) Betsy and I got home pretty late and then ate some snacks and chatted before we went to sleep.
Sunday all of my motivation went flying face first out of the window and it rained most of the day, which didn't help. However, I did get a basic spring break plan nailed down with a mode of transportation, so that was a definite plus. But other than that I really didn't accomplish much; other than drinking an obscene amount of coffee, watching BBC's Japan Report all day and then not sleeping for most the night. BUT I did pick all my classes for next semester already, and got a summer-job interview set up for later in the week, so I'm not going to say that Sunday was a complete waste. It was just not very productive for France. However, I made up for that today by going on an hour long walk around Angers inbetween my classes, AND doing laundry WHILE studying for my exam.
Whoa can anyone else feel that insane productivity?
To finish, it's nighttime here. I got about 4 hours of sleep last night and am now going to pass out.
I miss you all mucho. Je vous aimez!
Friday I said good bye to Andrea and her mom, which was really quite sad; they were A TON of fun in Angers, plus it's always nice to see a familar face. I didn't really realize how much I missed all of the people at home until they both were here and then had to leave. So that was sort of emotionally difficult, but bearable, because I mean, I'm in France - my life is made of awesome right now - I eat pastries on a daily basis. So I suppose I can miss you all for a little bit longer without going completely mental. Later Friday night I just lounged around at home, drank some wine and caught up on life until Betsy got home and then we watched part of Lars and the Real Girl. I say part because I ended up passing out because as many of you know, I sleep when I drink; and had drank just about a bottle of wine at that point.
Saturday was another great day, I woke up fairly late and made a real breakfast before heading out to the Marche at the Jardain du Mail for some window/stall? shopping. After that we grabbed some lunch and I went home to do some for real grocery shopping, which hadn't been done in AGES. Later I went out with some friends to Soft ( a bar in Angers) which was really really great. There were about 10+ of us in the backroom at the bar and nearly everyone was from the states, which was kind of bizarre but also pretty hilarious/great. It was like our tiny corner of America hidden inside of France. I a fantastic sangria, and also a shot that not only tasted like bubblegum and vodka, but came WITH bubblegum! (I'm fairly convinced that it was the best thing ever.) Betsy and I got home pretty late and then ate some snacks and chatted before we went to sleep.
Sunday all of my motivation went flying face first out of the window and it rained most of the day, which didn't help. However, I did get a basic spring break plan nailed down with a mode of transportation, so that was a definite plus. But other than that I really didn't accomplish much; other than drinking an obscene amount of coffee, watching BBC's Japan Report all day and then not sleeping for most the night. BUT I did pick all my classes for next semester already, and got a summer-job interview set up for later in the week, so I'm not going to say that Sunday was a complete waste. It was just not very productive for France. However, I made up for that today by going on an hour long walk around Angers inbetween my classes, AND doing laundry WHILE studying for my exam.
 |
| Trying to be artsy |
 |
| Some photos from my walk today |
Whoa can anyone else feel that insane productivity?
To finish, it's nighttime here. I got about 4 hours of sleep last night and am now going to pass out.
I miss you all mucho. Je vous aimez!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
It's been awhile...
Sorry about that all my dear and wonderful readers. The last two weeks in France have been INCREDIBLY busy so I haven't had time to update you all on the inner-workings of my life in France.
I'm SURE you're all feeling very neglected, and I hope this entry will make up for my former lack of blogging.
And off we go!
First off I've come to the realization that the French don't check their parks before they close them, which means if you are in a park 10 minutes before it closes no one will come around and tell you to get out; they'll just lock all the doors and leave you in there. This can be especially problematic if the park you're in is surrounded by 12 foot tall fences that have sharp pokes on top...however the problem usually can be solved by finding a flat top wall, and climbing on top of trash-bins to hoist yourself over the wall and out of the park. ;)
On another note, I don't like Paris.
Or, at least I really don't like the touristy aspect of Paris. It makes me want to throw myself off of the Eiffel Tower. There's just too many people taking pictures; it's like Mount Rushmore, it literally looks like the postcard. I mean, not to demean a national landmark or anything, I'm just not a fan,I'm probably one of the only people who doesn't like that kind of stuff. Also there are just too many people hassling you to buy things or sign things, or a million other things that it's hard to just sit back an really enjoy anything.
However, I will say that I really enjoy just walking around side-streets in Paris and not being near any big national landmarks. I could probably be entertained easily by just riding the metro for a whole day. I really like people watching in Paris, and France in general. Also pizza here is awesome. I've had it like 3 times in the last couple weeks. It's really cheap to split between two people, and also delicious; two things which make my life fantastic.
Other important things? My brother was in France over the weekend (just for Saturday) which was really fun, we wandered Paris for a day and walked from the Latin Quarter to l'Arc du Triomphe, which was fun, but a LONG walk and also a bit chilly. He left on Sunday morning and then my roommate from college and her mom arrived in France. They've been in Angers all week, which has sort of been the highlight of my life right now. We all went to Ash Wednesday mass at the Cathedral in Angers, which was incredibly gorgeous and a tiny bit confusing, because it was (obviously) all in French, and I still don't know church vocab. I decided to give up American television for Lent, and also partially speaking English in general; at least as much I can (I'm still writing this blog in English, and obviously will still speak English to all my friend in 'merica). I feel like Lent is a good enough excuse as any to really dive into the french language even more than I have been already so I'm really looking forward to seeing if this actually works.
Can you believe it everyone? I've been here over a month and it doesn't even feel like it. I've started taking tests and moving faster in my classes and every week literally feels like it takes a minute and a half to be over.
I need time to slowww down. Hopefully that will come a little bit this weekend and the next coming weeks.
Gros bisous mes amis!
I'm SURE you're all feeling very neglected, and I hope this entry will make up for my former lack of blogging.
And off we go!
First off I've come to the realization that the French don't check their parks before they close them, which means if you are in a park 10 minutes before it closes no one will come around and tell you to get out; they'll just lock all the doors and leave you in there. This can be especially problematic if the park you're in is surrounded by 12 foot tall fences that have sharp pokes on top...however the problem usually can be solved by finding a flat top wall, and climbing on top of trash-bins to hoist yourself over the wall and out of the park. ;)
On another note, I don't like Paris.
Or, at least I really don't like the touristy aspect of Paris. It makes me want to throw myself off of the Eiffel Tower. There's just too many people taking pictures; it's like Mount Rushmore, it literally looks like the postcard. I mean, not to demean a national landmark or anything, I'm just not a fan,I'm probably one of the only people who doesn't like that kind of stuff. Also there are just too many people hassling you to buy things or sign things, or a million other things that it's hard to just sit back an really enjoy anything.
However, I will say that I really enjoy just walking around side-streets in Paris and not being near any big national landmarks. I could probably be entertained easily by just riding the metro for a whole day. I really like people watching in Paris, and France in general. Also pizza here is awesome. I've had it like 3 times in the last couple weeks. It's really cheap to split between two people, and also delicious; two things which make my life fantastic.
Other important things? My brother was in France over the weekend (just for Saturday) which was really fun, we wandered Paris for a day and walked from the Latin Quarter to l'Arc du Triomphe, which was fun, but a LONG walk and also a bit chilly. He left on Sunday morning and then my roommate from college and her mom arrived in France. They've been in Angers all week, which has sort of been the highlight of my life right now. We all went to Ash Wednesday mass at the Cathedral in Angers, which was incredibly gorgeous and a tiny bit confusing, because it was (obviously) all in French, and I still don't know church vocab. I decided to give up American television for Lent, and also partially speaking English in general; at least as much I can (I'm still writing this blog in English, and obviously will still speak English to all my friend in 'merica). I feel like Lent is a good enough excuse as any to really dive into the french language even more than I have been already so I'm really looking forward to seeing if this actually works.
Can you believe it everyone? I've been here over a month and it doesn't even feel like it. I've started taking tests and moving faster in my classes and every week literally feels like it takes a minute and a half to be over.
I need time to slowww down. Hopefully that will come a little bit this weekend and the next coming weeks.
Gros bisous mes amis!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
If only I could cook.
I know I've said this before but time really does move faster in France. Another week in France is already underway and I have the strong feeling that it's going by too fast and it'll be the weekend soon and then next week and the week after and then JUNE and won't know where the time went.
Yikes.
The only good thing about time moving this fast is that so far my days have been pretty much chock-full of fun stuff, cooking adventures, delicious food and time to write and read.
Oh and did I say delicious food? By food I really meant desserts, and coffee.
Also by delicious food I am not in anyway implying that since I've came to France I've become Julia Child, because I haven't; and probably won't. I am learning slightly how to cook and some things have turned out pretty good, mediocre, or my personal favorite "well we haven't gotten sick yet." The other night I made fried pears cooked in a Nutella and butter, which will probably give me a heart attack later but at the time was pretty good. I've also managed to make turkey and salmon on a couple occasions and of course, spaghetti. I tried making rice tonight to go with the salmon, which would have been really good had I cooked the rice how the box said : "12 minutes in boiling water" instead of: "12 minutes in water that was boiled and now is just hot..."
Who would have thought?
But the important thing is that I am learning from my dumb cooking mistakes and there have been less and less meals that fall into the "we haven't gotten sick yet" category.
The last few days in France have been incredibly great. Over the weekend Betsy, Mary Beth and I went and saw "Les femmes du 6eme etage" which is a French film about a group of Spanish maids who work for rich families in Paris during the 1960's. It was really funny and good, there was a love story element to the movie, which was nice but (I think) was pretty...well...French and slightly strange. However, by far the best part of the movie was that I could understand it! And follow along and didn't feel lost ever. Which makes me incredibly happy and feel like I'm doing really well in my comprehension.
Saturday, it rained but despite this Betsy and I went to the Marche and bout some fresh fruit and veggies and then made a quick trip to Carrefourre for the essential french cookies and crackers and other delicious things. We went window shopping au Centre-ville after that, met up with a few girls later in the night and ended up at the bar "Les Varieties" where we had some DELICIOUS crepes and coffee. The drinks were pretty low priced there too...aaaand they have karaoke on Thursdays, so we're definitely going back in the near future.
Sunday, a group of us had plans to walk to one of the big park's in Angers and later to Ile Saint Aubin for a picnic. It was an incredibly beautiful day for a long walk and a really good time, although we didn't actually get to visit Ile Saint Aubin (we couldn't find the bridge, haha). We had some fresh baguettes, cheese, cookies, and Cidre for our picnic which was pretty much fantastic. By the time we got home I was pretty much dead inside though from all of the walking (almost 10 miles all told, in about 5 hours) and lounged around the rest of the day and did some homework.
Ok, I don't know if this is normal, but I'm not really homesick. Or missing home too much. Skype + Facebook makes it easy to talk to anyone I really want to, and I live with Betsy so I'm not completely isolated with my host family. Not to say I don't miss things, because I do, such as:
1. My friends and family, obviously. Can't you all just move here?
2. My car. I DESPERATELY miss driving my car, relying on public transportation is just not my favorite thing in the world, even though it's more cost efficient.
3. Cheap food, particularly doughnuts. France is just more expensive, but the food is better so it's a pretty even trade most of the time. Except for the fact that they don't have doughnuts, which are one of the main loves of my life.
4. My incredibly warm green blanket.
5. Bagels
6. A big selection of micro-brewed beers. (I should probably just learn to like wine more, and then I wouldn't have this problem)
7. Singing really loud in my car or just in general.
That's really all for now. Oh, awesome discovery, the alarm clock in my room has a radio on it. So for the last few days I've been rocking out to some French music (but also a lot of American music) which has been GREAT!
Much love, Sarah
Yikes.
The only good thing about time moving this fast is that so far my days have been pretty much chock-full of fun stuff, cooking adventures, delicious food and time to write and read.
Oh and did I say delicious food? By food I really meant desserts, and coffee.
Also by delicious food I am not in anyway implying that since I've came to France I've become Julia Child, because I haven't; and probably won't. I am learning slightly how to cook and some things have turned out pretty good, mediocre, or my personal favorite "well we haven't gotten sick yet." The other night I made fried pears cooked in a Nutella and butter, which will probably give me a heart attack later but at the time was pretty good. I've also managed to make turkey and salmon on a couple occasions and of course, spaghetti. I tried making rice tonight to go with the salmon, which would have been really good had I cooked the rice how the box said : "12 minutes in boiling water" instead of: "12 minutes in water that was boiled and now is just hot..."
Who would have thought?
But the important thing is that I am learning from my dumb cooking mistakes and there have been less and less meals that fall into the "we haven't gotten sick yet" category.
The last few days in France have been incredibly great. Over the weekend Betsy, Mary Beth and I went and saw "Les femmes du 6eme etage" which is a French film about a group of Spanish maids who work for rich families in Paris during the 1960's. It was really funny and good, there was a love story element to the movie, which was nice but (I think) was pretty...well...French and slightly strange. However, by far the best part of the movie was that I could understand it! And follow along and didn't feel lost ever. Which makes me incredibly happy and feel like I'm doing really well in my comprehension.
Saturday, it rained but despite this Betsy and I went to the Marche and bout some fresh fruit and veggies and then made a quick trip to Carrefourre for the essential french cookies and crackers and other delicious things. We went window shopping au Centre-ville after that, met up with a few girls later in the night and ended up at the bar "Les Varieties" where we had some DELICIOUS crepes and coffee. The drinks were pretty low priced there too...aaaand they have karaoke on Thursdays, so we're definitely going back in the near future.
Sunday, a group of us had plans to walk to one of the big park's in Angers and later to Ile Saint Aubin for a picnic. It was an incredibly beautiful day for a long walk and a really good time, although we didn't actually get to visit Ile Saint Aubin (we couldn't find the bridge, haha). We had some fresh baguettes, cheese, cookies, and Cidre for our picnic which was pretty much fantastic. By the time we got home I was pretty much dead inside though from all of the walking (almost 10 miles all told, in about 5 hours) and lounged around the rest of the day and did some homework.
Ok, I don't know if this is normal, but I'm not really homesick. Or missing home too much. Skype + Facebook makes it easy to talk to anyone I really want to, and I live with Betsy so I'm not completely isolated with my host family. Not to say I don't miss things, because I do, such as:
1. My friends and family, obviously. Can't you all just move here?
2. My car. I DESPERATELY miss driving my car, relying on public transportation is just not my favorite thing in the world, even though it's more cost efficient.
3. Cheap food, particularly doughnuts. France is just more expensive, but the food is better so it's a pretty even trade most of the time. Except for the fact that they don't have doughnuts, which are one of the main loves of my life.
4. My incredibly warm green blanket.
5. Bagels
6. A big selection of micro-brewed beers. (I should probably just learn to like wine more, and then I wouldn't have this problem)
7. Singing really loud in my car or just in general.
That's really all for now. Oh, awesome discovery, the alarm clock in my room has a radio on it. So for the last few days I've been rocking out to some French music (but also a lot of American music) which has been GREAT!
Much love, Sarah
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
A List of Do's and Don't
Things to do in France:
Over the weekend I went out to one of the Irish Pubs in Angers with a few of my friends for drinks and good company. Needless to say it was a lot of fun and we walked around the Centre-ville and the streets around the Universite for awhile before calling it a night. The next day Betsy and I walked to the Market by the Jardain du Mail which was HUGE, even at 1230, which was actually pretty late. The weather was sort of rainy all day, so after that we sort of just wandered around town all day and did a tiny bit of shopping before calling it a day. This brings us to Sunday, a day where NOTHING (except Macdo) is open in France and the streets are so empty that you start to wonder if there was an evacuation and you missed the memo. Which means buying the essential things like...toliet paper are a tiny bit difficult, or impossible...
Luckily Monday morning came pretty quickly and now there's a giant 12 pack of toliet paper in the bathroom, a fridge with food and a new package of do-it-yourself CREPES along with Nutella!
Suddenly, life in France is just about as great as it could be.
- Speak French.
- Explore (Avrille, Ponts de Ce, Saumur, La Rochelle, Strasbourg, everywhere)
- Eat bread/chocolate/nutella/cheese/other delicious things
- Send postcards
- Watch French Tv with my host mom
- Have a wonderful time!
- Microwave a sandwich after putting mayonaise on it
- Empty a whole can of green beans in the frying pan while trying to cook turkey at the same time
- Step in pony poop
- Think that it's okay not to carry an umbrella around at all times
- Think that it's okay to wait until Sunday to buy groceries
- Eat an entire(big) loaf of bread in 6 hours
- Have a half-blind cat puke in my bed again
Over the weekend I went out to one of the Irish Pubs in Angers with a few of my friends for drinks and good company. Needless to say it was a lot of fun and we walked around the Centre-ville and the streets around the Universite for awhile before calling it a night. The next day Betsy and I walked to the Market by the Jardain du Mail which was HUGE, even at 1230, which was actually pretty late. The weather was sort of rainy all day, so after that we sort of just wandered around town all day and did a tiny bit of shopping before calling it a day. This brings us to Sunday, a day where NOTHING (except Macdo) is open in France and the streets are so empty that you start to wonder if there was an evacuation and you missed the memo. Which means buying the essential things like...toliet paper are a tiny bit difficult, or impossible...
Luckily Monday morning came pretty quickly and now there's a giant 12 pack of toliet paper in the bathroom, a fridge with food and a new package of do-it-yourself CREPES along with Nutella!
Suddenly, life in France is just about as great as it could be.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Things aren't always as they seem
If there's anything I'm learning incredibly quickly in France it's that things aren't always as they seem, and though this might seem very obvious and you might all be thinking "well no duh Sarah, moron" I feel like the whole idea of it takes a brand new meaning in France. Maybe if I had actually read up a little more on French culture I would have known this sooner, but since I didn't...it's literally a whole new world everyday for now.
For example, my host family. For the last....week/2 weeks I've been UNGODLY intimidated by them, particularly the host-mother, since every time I'd talk to her it would seem like I was not doing something right or something like that. In addition, she would never ask Betsy and I if we wanted to eat with them, or even how we were, if we made it to school etc. While other people's host families seemed like they wanted to know absolutely everything about their lives, if things were okay, and fed them on a regular basis etc. These differences sort of surmounted in my mind and created this image in my head of my host-mom being this terryfing french woman...
Luckily, however, Betsy and I put on our big-girls pants and decided to just try and talk to our host-mom and see if we could eat dinner with her every Thursday night. Which brings us to the present evening.
You see, we didn't specify a time for dinner, so first Betsy and I were both just upstairs doing homework and hanging out waiting for dinner, when we heard the dinner bell. Yes, that's right, the dinner bell. I didn't think they still existed either, but they do and are used in our house to indicate that it's time for the young ladies living upstairs to come downstairs and eat. Who would have thought. After this we go downstairs and have this SUPER GREAT dinner with our host-mom, which was made up of this potato/ham/onion/cheese/omg delicious casserole in a cream sauce (served with salad, of course) followed by sweet bread with apples put in a caramel/sugar/sauce of heaven.
And the best part?!
We found out our host-mom doesn't dislike us! She just didn't ask us to dine with her because usually American students don't like French food (too much sauce or something?) and she was very friendly during dinner and we are no longer intimidated by her. Definite Success!
For example, my host family. For the last....week/2 weeks I've been UNGODLY intimidated by them, particularly the host-mother, since every time I'd talk to her it would seem like I was not doing something right or something like that. In addition, she would never ask Betsy and I if we wanted to eat with them, or even how we were, if we made it to school etc. While other people's host families seemed like they wanted to know absolutely everything about their lives, if things were okay, and fed them on a regular basis etc. These differences sort of surmounted in my mind and created this image in my head of my host-mom being this terryfing french woman...
Luckily, however, Betsy and I put on our big-girls pants and decided to just try and talk to our host-mom and see if we could eat dinner with her every Thursday night. Which brings us to the present evening.
You see, we didn't specify a time for dinner, so first Betsy and I were both just upstairs doing homework and hanging out waiting for dinner, when we heard the dinner bell. Yes, that's right, the dinner bell. I didn't think they still existed either, but they do and are used in our house to indicate that it's time for the young ladies living upstairs to come downstairs and eat. Who would have thought. After this we go downstairs and have this SUPER GREAT dinner with our host-mom, which was made up of this potato/ham/onion/cheese/omg delicious casserole in a cream sauce (served with salad, of course) followed by sweet bread with apples put in a caramel/sugar/sauce of heaven.
And the best part?!
We found out our host-mom doesn't dislike us! She just didn't ask us to dine with her because usually American students don't like French food (too much sauce or something?) and she was very friendly during dinner and we are no longer intimidated by her. Definite Success!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Headlights can be practical too!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Les euros, pas les francs
You would think after 10 years of France having the Euro that cash registers at les supermarches wouldn't ring things up in BOTH euros and francs. You know, to avoid the confusion of thinking that your food is $211 when it's really only $36 and thus the freaking out about how you'll buy food for the rest of your study abroad trip. Luckily cashiers are very nice and only laugh at people who make this mistake a little! ;) All in all though, la supermarche was a success and now Betsy and I have cidre and other goodies to make food with!
 |
| Side street in Angers, it was finally SUNNY today! |
 |
| Cidre, thank you supermarche! |
 |
| Nutella! Success despite looking like a dumbass at the Carrefour! |
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Hitting the Ground Running
Today is literally the first time since I've been in France that it hasn't been obscenely late (or I haven't been obscenely tired) where I've had time to sort of organize my life. So I figured I'd let everyone in the states know how things are going! Oh, and are they going!!
So first impressions/thoughts about France?
- The food is better (OBVIOUSLY)
- The coffee is better
- Houses/Architecture in general is just amazing, all of the side-streets are full of cool little shops or tiny houses and just magnifique. Also they're incredibly fun to just stroll along on and mange on some tasty pastry.
- However, despite this there is a great deal of dog poops on some of the streets in Angers, which can be a little terrifying when you're ambling.
- Driving in France is also a terrifying experience, it's insanely fast and the intersections are weird/not really intersections, they're all roundabouts, plus M. Pichot drives like his pants are on fire and accelerates and then brakes with extraordinary speed that caused all our stomachs to lurch. :S But I can't really critique him since he drove us around for three days (one of which you couldn't see out the back of the van because there was too much luggage) without killing us or getting us in an accident.
So, on to other things.
Jet lag is a bitch. Seriously. The first day we were in France we drove to Paris and saw la Tour Eiffel and walked around to stay awake, which was probably good in the long run but was frustrating at the time because it was FREEZING. After this we got in the van and drove to Angers, well Pichot drove to Angers. I sat in the back and literally passed out for an hour, straight into full on dreaming REM sleep. The of course when I tried to sleep later that night it did not work so well. But, it's all good now, my sleep schedule has normalized itself.
My host family seems very cool. I say seems because I haven't really seen much of them. Betsy (my housemate) and I have the whole deuxieme etage to ourselves, it has a kitchen and a bathroom/toilette on it along with our own bedrooms. I really like this, because I enjoy being independent, but at the same time I sort of wish I could easily get to know the family without feeling like I'm intruding into their own personal space. But I mean, it's only day 3/4 so there's plenty of time to get to know them.
I've done several less than smart things. Including almost stepping in dog-crap, telling Pichot that I like to drink, and making my host family think I'm dumb. (their main rule is turn off the lights, which I thought I did for breakfast, however much to my host mom's displeasure, I did not. Merde!) I also left my purse with ALL my important information in the van the first night we were in Angers. Also Betsy and I are currently not using the family's internet because for some reason our computers can't connect to it. So our host sister gave us a password for this other internet, which doesn't belong to them? Shady? I think yes.
Successes? Cidre. Hard cider the french way, which is the delicious way and a specialty in this region of France so it's pretty much at every Creparie. Crepes are also a success, especially when lit on fire and soaked in calvados. Also it's been pretty easy to navigate in Angers, and exploring thus far has been great. And my french hasn't been terrible! And I can understand people when they speak, meme s'ils parlent tres vite!
To finish: There has been one incredibly weird event in France. Last night Betsy and I were in our rooms around....10pm just relaxing. All of the sudden my door opens and in walks a cat. This wouldn't have been that weird except that it wasn't the cat that our host family owned. It was white and black with one blind eye and was SO FAT. I was incredibly confused so I told Betsy and we both laughed hysterically because we had NO IDEA where this giant cat came from. It just meandered around and smelled all of our clothes and rooms and then walked downstairs. Soooo strange. Then a few minutes later we heard our host sister yell and a cat hiss and then Anne-Laure was yelling for her parents and it was all scuffles and everything in the downstairs. After this nothing really happened, and we haven't seen anyone to really ask about it since then. But it was kind of hilarious and great.
D'accord. That's all for now that I can think of. Brain = dead after the language exam today. Classes start on Monday! Life is EXCITING!
So first impressions/thoughts about France?
- The food is better (OBVIOUSLY)
- The coffee is better
- Houses/Architecture in general is just amazing, all of the side-streets are full of cool little shops or tiny houses and just magnifique. Also they're incredibly fun to just stroll along on and mange on some tasty pastry.
- However, despite this there is a great deal of dog poops on some of the streets in Angers, which can be a little terrifying when you're ambling.
- Driving in France is also a terrifying experience, it's insanely fast and the intersections are weird/not really intersections, they're all roundabouts, plus M. Pichot drives like his pants are on fire and accelerates and then brakes with extraordinary speed that caused all our stomachs to lurch. :S But I can't really critique him since he drove us around for three days (one of which you couldn't see out the back of the van because there was too much luggage) without killing us or getting us in an accident.
So, on to other things.
Jet lag is a bitch. Seriously. The first day we were in France we drove to Paris and saw la Tour Eiffel and walked around to stay awake, which was probably good in the long run but was frustrating at the time because it was FREEZING. After this we got in the van and drove to Angers, well Pichot drove to Angers. I sat in the back and literally passed out for an hour, straight into full on dreaming REM sleep. The of course when I tried to sleep later that night it did not work so well. But, it's all good now, my sleep schedule has normalized itself.
My host family seems very cool. I say seems because I haven't really seen much of them. Betsy (my housemate) and I have the whole deuxieme etage to ourselves, it has a kitchen and a bathroom/toilette on it along with our own bedrooms. I really like this, because I enjoy being independent, but at the same time I sort of wish I could easily get to know the family without feeling like I'm intruding into their own personal space. But I mean, it's only day 3/4 so there's plenty of time to get to know them.
I've done several less than smart things. Including almost stepping in dog-crap, telling Pichot that I like to drink, and making my host family think I'm dumb. (their main rule is turn off the lights, which I thought I did for breakfast, however much to my host mom's displeasure, I did not. Merde!) I also left my purse with ALL my important information in the van the first night we were in Angers. Also Betsy and I are currently not using the family's internet because for some reason our computers can't connect to it. So our host sister gave us a password for this other internet, which doesn't belong to them? Shady? I think yes.
Successes? Cidre. Hard cider the french way, which is the delicious way and a specialty in this region of France so it's pretty much at every Creparie. Crepes are also a success, especially when lit on fire and soaked in calvados. Also it's been pretty easy to navigate in Angers, and exploring thus far has been great. And my french hasn't been terrible! And I can understand people when they speak, meme s'ils parlent tres vite!
To finish: There has been one incredibly weird event in France. Last night Betsy and I were in our rooms around....10pm just relaxing. All of the sudden my door opens and in walks a cat. This wouldn't have been that weird except that it wasn't the cat that our host family owned. It was white and black with one blind eye and was SO FAT. I was incredibly confused so I told Betsy and we both laughed hysterically because we had NO IDEA where this giant cat came from. It just meandered around and smelled all of our clothes and rooms and then walked downstairs. Soooo strange. Then a few minutes later we heard our host sister yell and a cat hiss and then Anne-Laure was yelling for her parents and it was all scuffles and everything in the downstairs. After this nothing really happened, and we haven't seen anyone to really ask about it since then. But it was kind of hilarious and great.
D'accord. That's all for now that I can think of. Brain = dead after the language exam today. Classes start on Monday! Life is EXCITING!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
9 days 'til departure
So here's the deal. If you weren't already aware my name is Sarah. I'm a fairly hum-drum college student who spends a great deal of time studying, pretending to study, traveling around and spending time with my amazing and wonderful friends and family. In addition to this in 9 short days I am about to embark on a serious adventure into the European continent; mainly, La France.
I'm incredibly excited about this, obviously. I mean who wouldn't love to just pack up and live in France for 4 months to study, travel, eat delicious food, and meet some very cool French people? Yeah, I don't know either. However, I'm also slightly nervous because, I mean, foreign country and what if my French really isn't up to snuff. I mean, I think it is, but that's just me. But besides from this worry I'm mainly just incredibly happy to be going for 4 months into a completely different culture and just travel until my legs will literally not work anymore. Hopefully I'll come back with some pretty great stories too, which I will attempt to post on here. I sincerely hope they're good stories and entertain any of you who actually decide to read this on a fairly regular basis :)
Anyway, as of now I have 9 days until I leave for la belle France and am attempting to get a start on packing, which is incredibly difficult for several different reasons.
A) I hate packing, I'd rather do about 20 other things than even start to put things inside a suitcase
B) I procrastinate. I started to make a list of things to pack and then got intimidated and stopped. I then showed this list to my dad and he told me it was absolutely necessary for me to pack a head-light. (you know, those lights that you wear on your head when you camp). I didn't really get this, since I couldn't think of a time when I'd be climbing into dark caves or camping in France, but I'll probably bring it anyway.
C) I brought my suitcase upstairs only to discover it is ripped and has mold growing on it.
Needless to say none of these things are making my packing experience easy. On top of this I have the sincere belief that the French government is not going to let me in the country due to the fact that I look like I'm about to bomb a building in my student visa photo. Now, I have heard that this is pretty normal and that no one looks good in their visa, but I haven't seen anyone elses, so I'm not really buying it.
But enough negativity. I am enjoying the time I've been spending with my family and friends for the last month an a half I've been home. It's been really nice to just relax and see everyone. Also I'm liking making somewhat solid travel plans for my time abroad (my list looks like a 5 year-old made it right now, but no biggie). If you have any suggestions please send them my way. I haven't started my European list and right now only have ideas for in France where the majority of my travel will probably be.
I guess that's all for now?
I'm incredibly excited about this, obviously. I mean who wouldn't love to just pack up and live in France for 4 months to study, travel, eat delicious food, and meet some very cool French people? Yeah, I don't know either. However, I'm also slightly nervous because, I mean, foreign country and what if my French really isn't up to snuff. I mean, I think it is, but that's just me. But besides from this worry I'm mainly just incredibly happy to be going for 4 months into a completely different culture and just travel until my legs will literally not work anymore. Hopefully I'll come back with some pretty great stories too, which I will attempt to post on here. I sincerely hope they're good stories and entertain any of you who actually decide to read this on a fairly regular basis :)
Anyway, as of now I have 9 days until I leave for la belle France and am attempting to get a start on packing, which is incredibly difficult for several different reasons.
A) I hate packing, I'd rather do about 20 other things than even start to put things inside a suitcase
B) I procrastinate. I started to make a list of things to pack and then got intimidated and stopped. I then showed this list to my dad and he told me it was absolutely necessary for me to pack a head-light. (you know, those lights that you wear on your head when you camp). I didn't really get this, since I couldn't think of a time when I'd be climbing into dark caves or camping in France, but I'll probably bring it anyway.
C) I brought my suitcase upstairs only to discover it is ripped and has mold growing on it.
Needless to say none of these things are making my packing experience easy. On top of this I have the sincere belief that the French government is not going to let me in the country due to the fact that I look like I'm about to bomb a building in my student visa photo. Now, I have heard that this is pretty normal and that no one looks good in their visa, but I haven't seen anyone elses, so I'm not really buying it.
But enough negativity. I am enjoying the time I've been spending with my family and friends for the last month an a half I've been home. It's been really nice to just relax and see everyone. Also I'm liking making somewhat solid travel plans for my time abroad (my list looks like a 5 year-old made it right now, but no biggie). If you have any suggestions please send them my way. I haven't started my European list and right now only have ideas for in France where the majority of my travel will probably be.
I guess that's all for now?
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