Francophile in the West

Another fantastic day!! This whole week has been really busy for me with homework and other things to take care of, and tonight was a much needed change of pace and time to relax (and I received a wonderful package from Kris today, which made my day even better!!). My friends Hannah, Jessica, Iain, Iain's friend Bianca, and I met up downtown in Bouffay and went to dinner at a creperie, where I had a DELICIOUS gallette filled with cheese, sausage, mushrooms, and onions. OH, it hit the spot. The first picture is from the restaurant. The waiter offered to take our picture, but he didn't know how to work my schwanky SLR camera, and I was trying to tell him to use the viewfinder, but I didn't know the word in French (I looked it up when I got back- it's viseur), so I told him, "Regarde avec les yeux!" (look with your eyes!), and he said, "What else would I look with?" and laughed. OH MAN. It was hilariously embarrassing. But mostly hilarious. At least I b...

My favorite part of every weekend is going to the Talensac market on Sunday mornings and buying all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables and meats. Today, I bought potatoes, cherry tomatoes, an avacado, nectarines, a mango, and some fresh salmon. I had the mango for lunch, and it was easily one of the best I've ever had in my life. For dinner, I sauteed the salmon in butter and lemon juice and had it over white rice. It was SO tasty!! I must say, I'm feeling pretty confident with my cooking abilities over here. It's great to have so many fresh ingredients to work and experiement with. The UW group went to Saint-Malo and le Mont Saint Michel yesterday and they were both just gorgeous! It was the perfect day; in the 70s and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky. We couldn't have gone on a better day. Just yesterday, I took over 350 pictures! It was so much fun to just hop onto a giant tour bus and head out of town for the day, and have breakfast and lunch paid for. Tha...

I had such a wonderful day today!! I spent the day exploring by myself and I got a lot of fun things done. First, I went to the Talensac market downtown and bought a bottle of Cabernet Franc, an avacado, some nectarines, some cherry tomatoes, and flowers! After I dropped all that back off at my room, I went back downtown... This weekend was what the French call "Les journées du patrimoine", where all the museums, galleries, and places of cultural interest in general are open and free to the public. I found out about it in my Society and Economy class and decided to take advantage of it. I first went to the Planetarium and got to sit in on a narrated tour of the solar system and Milky Way Galaxy, in French, bien sûr! It was awesome because along with loving French, the astronomy classes I've taken at UW have been my all-time favorites, so it was perfect to see planets and constellations and stars and hear about them all in French! :) After that, I went through the Musée ...

Man, it's pretty hard to keep up with this thing when I have so many things going on!! Everything is wonderful and all is going swimmingly. Classes have started and are going well, I finally have internet in my room, and I'm actively booking my trips to Nice and Paris with Kris! I'm so excited!! I adore everything about this country. I absolutely LOVE hearing French every day and being able to speak it whenever I want to. The language feels so comfortable. Even though I'm definitely not a native as far as speaking ability and grammar and things like that go, I feel like I'm doing very well, and it feels as right to speak French as it does to speak English. I'm thinking in French a lot now! I'll be in my room between classes and I'll be thinking of what I need to do to prepare for my next class -in French-, or I'll be talking to my boyfriend and I'll think of something in French before I can think of it in English. It's great!! I really don...

This is not my normal life, but I love it!! Every moment is a new experience and a new adventure, it’s so wonderful! Last night, several of us met up with Ian, this Scotsman who’s in my friend Jessica’s classes, and we met up with a bunch of his friends at this bar called “Le Chien Stupide”, where everyone had a drink and got to know each other. There were probably 15 or 16 of us in the group. After that, we went to this semi-seedy underground bar called BMP, which is well behind Bouffay, where this French punk band called “The Curlee Wurlees” played a couple of sets. Oh my. It was so awesome!! French punk music, sweaty, semi-slimy French people, everyone’s chatting at a shout over the music and bopping around. It was such a blast!! We left between sets after all the Europeans in the group had had a cigarette (WOW, can those people smoke! Yikes!), and then we wandered around back in Bouffay and wound up at this late-night kebab place, where most of the group got something to eat. The...

Another great day here in France! Got up early and met Helene and the gang at the Place du Cirque tram station, and we walked around town for a bit, then went to breakfast in this gorgeous old restaurant called “La Cigale” (The Cicada) that’s located right across from Nantes’ opera house, which is also spectacular. We had the Nantes version of the typical French breakfast of orange juice, hot chocolate, and fresh croissants. Delicious as usual. Helene showed us a good chunk of town after breakfast, and we finally ended up at the Orange store, where most of the students in the programs bought cell phones with SIM cards, while myself and two others already had unlocked cell phones and just bought the SIM cards for them. I’m really glad my mom sent me over with an old phone! I saved 24 euros on that today. Win. After all that, we mosey’d into the bookstore at the Place de Commerce called Fnac, where I bought a French-language copy of Pride and Prejudice, as well as a book from the Petit...

I’m in Nantes!!! I’m hanging out in my adorable little European dorm room. Lots of storage space, tiny bathroom, hard bed, crappy pillow, great desk space, and linoleum everywhere. That sounds about right. I’m so excited to be here. It’s going to be a good quarter. My voyage over to Paris went just fine; all the connections went smoothly and I wasn’t too stressed at all. The best part of my journey actually occurred in London! As the plane was coming in for a landing, we passed right over the Thames and from my window I could see the London Eye, Big Ben, and the Parliament building! The last time I was in London was 2007, so it was exciting to see something that I was familiar with and enjoyed. I made it to the MEC (Maison des etudiants canadiens) late last night and managed to call my mom, my boyfriend, and get online and check my email. I had a hard time sleeping, but hopefully it was just because of jetlag. Got up at 7:30 and got ready, then we all met with Helene, our program coor...