Francophile in the West

I'm enjoying quite the relaxing evening over here! I have no homework except to study briefly for a petit test in my Culture class tomorrow, and I'm all warm and cozy in my room, drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the rain outside of my window (I find it funny that 90% of my milk consumption goes to making hot chocolate, haha). Today was a pretty laid-back day, as far as classes and my always present To-Do list go. Kris arrives tomorrow, so of course I'm eagerly counting down the hours until I pick him up at the train station! Lucky for me, I don't have class until 16:00 on Mondays, so I had plenty of time to clean, do laundry, run some errands, and get things all prepped for his arrival several days in advance. I recently discovered that I can stream 98.1 KING FM online, so I've been drowning myself in Seattle's choice of classical music anytime I'm hanging out in my room. It's wonderful to have a never-ending supply of fantastic music, and I don...

Today is a perfect Fall day in France. As I type, I'm in my dorm room with the radiator on, drinking piping hot chocolate and listening to classical music while it's in the low 50s outside. It's so lovely. I saw the most beautiful pastel sunrise while walking to my 8:30 class this morning, all wrapped up in my big wool peacoat and a scarf, watching my breath condense in front of me. So wonderful. I love all the little moments every day that make this experience so unforgettable. I'm finally wrapped up in living in the moment and taking everything in instead of being so busy planning for the future that I miss all of the amazing things happening around me! It's a lesson I've needed to soak up for a long time, and I'm glad that it's here in France that I'm finally matriculating it. I went to the Symphony again last night with several friends, and oh boy, was it fantastic. Although the program and the conductor were wonderful when I went last month, t...

Last weekend was great! I had a great time with lots of friends at Iain's flatwarming party on Saturday night. It's so awesome to be able to hang out with people from all over the world! I adore all the foreign people I'm meeting and it's wonderful to be a part of something so all-encompassing as studying abroad. It's such an amazing experience to be over here on my own at this time of life! (The picture to the right is me goofing around with Iain (from Scotland) and Juan (from Spain). They're awesome!) Sunday was slightly less fun because I wound up coming down with a cold! Yesterday was pretty bad, as well. I took it really easy most of Sunday and Monday. Luckily, I'm feeling much better today, and I'm looking forward to going to the Symphony again tomorrow night!! There is so much to do and so little time!!! P.S.- I've come to the solid conclusion that France has the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. I have the...

All continues to go well! As of today, I've been here for 5 weeks already. Wow, I can't believe that! It's been going by pretty quickly. Not fast enough that I feel it's passing me by, but it's definitely going by faster than I'd like it to! I absolutely love living here. I really hope life brings me back here for a year or two sometime in the future, but we'll see. :) Not too much craziness to report; I'm still having a great time and enjoying every day. A couple other UW people and I were in the local Nantes newspaper at the end of September, which was super cool!! We've also all been invited to a party at the Mayor's office on the 19th of this month. I love being a sort of 'foreign diplomat'! They are so welcoming to foreign students, it's great! This is without a doubt the perfect time of life for me to be over here; still under the protection of the University umbrella, yet adult enough to have the opportunity to do and see som...

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 ...