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!